The Help
by MsScribble
Summary: She's just the nanny, but when she's with him she's so much more… Warning: Infidelity. Smut, angst and drama. ExB. WIP.
1. Chapter 1

**The Help**

* * *

**1.**

The bar was packed. Bella had to push through a crowd on her way back to their booth, struggling with two drinks and overflowing bowl of peanuts. In an effort to keep the drinks steady (vital that not a single drop was spilled) she trod on more feet than she did floor, and as a result had a few dirty looks thrown her way.

"Making friends, I see," Emmett said dryly, as she finally reached the booth and slid first the precious drinks onto the table and then herself into the seat.

"Why does this always happen whenever we find a new bar?" Was Bella's reply. "We get to enjoy the cheap drinks and free peanuts and cute bar staff for, like, two weeks and then - like clockwork - everyone else discovers it and it becomes all overrun and… and…" Bella wrinkled her nose, glancing at the throng of girls in front of her, clamouring for Riley the bartender's attention, "and popular," she finished.

"It's our curse," Emmett said, nodding sagely.

"We have a curse?"

"No - not you. Me. We, the McCarty's. We're inherently unlucky. It's an old Irish curse."

"Um, I thought the Irish were meant to be lucky. Hence that saying - you know, the luck of the Irish."

Emmett shook his head sadly. He, like Bella, was watching the girls at the bar, but for a completely different reason. "Not those of us that are cursed," he said. "In our case it's the bad luck of the Irish." One of the girls had turned around and was now scanning the room. Her eyes landed on Emmett for one moment. He grinned and winked at her, and she turned away haughtily, looking exasperated. Emmett turned his attention back to Bella with barely a hint of disappointment on his face. "See," he said. "Cursed, to be unlucky all of our days. Especially with women. Bars, too, and the occasional shoe store, but mostly it's women."

Bella smirked at him. "Emmett, you're not cursed. You're just hideously ugly."

"Part of the curse."

Bella turned her eyes away from the bar and the offending group of girls that had tainted it. "If anyone's cursed, it's me," she said, taking a small sip of her beer and grimacing at the taste.

"I take it that means the chat with your Dad didn't go so well?"

"Chats with my Dad never go well. This one just happened to go a lot less well than usual."

Emmett raised an enquiring eyebrow, so Bella sighed and continued. "Basically he said he's not going to help. Well, technically his words were that I wouldn't see a damned red penny until I got my shit together."

"So he wants you to go back to college?"

"No," Bella said sourly, "he wants me to move back home and marry my ex. Then I'll finally doing something he considers useful with my life, and then he'll help me out financially."

"And seeing as you're not going to be doing any of that any time soon?" Emmett prompted.

Bella sighed. "Seeing as I won't be doing any of that ever, I am now officially completely broke. No scholarship money, no job -"

"Hang on," Emmett interrupted, "what happened to the job?"

"It was at a student-run campus book store. They didn't take kindly to hearing I wasn't a student anymore."

"Shit."

"Yep."

"So? What do you do now?"

"Haven't a clue," Bella said, taking a sip of her beer, and following it up with a handful of peanuts. "My scholarship money is frozen until I go back, my job already given to some dewy-eyed freshman. My Dad won't even loan me ten bucks for gas. I have less than thirty five dollars in my checking account, and if I'm lucky I may have about ten bucks in coins in my top drawer. Oh, and there's that twenty you owe me from dinner last Saturday, don't think I'm going to forget about that." She nodded at his scowl. "Yes, I'm calling in all debts, big and small, times are tough and a girl's gotta eat." She took another small sip of her beer. "And drink," she added, as an after thought.

"I take it that's why you're hoeing into the free peanuts and drinking that watered down piss, then?" Emmett asked her, nodding at her beer. "Cheapest drink in the house?"

"Uh-huh. And because Thursday night is two-for one night and I ordered it with yours, technically I got it for free."

"No, technically I paid for half of it, so half of it is mine. But," Emmett said, "I feel so sorry for you and your crippling financial situation that I will allow you to have it all. Also, I don't drink beer."

Bella shook her head mockingly. "Seriously, Emmett sometimes I look at you and wonder."

Emmett adopted a wounded expression. "Wonder what?"

"You're six foot three and built like a brick shithouse. You're like this stereotypical manly man, with your sports and your cars and your obsession with girly bits and inability to pass gas discreetly - and then we go out to a bar and you order cider. Cider." She shook her head. "And not even dry cider. But sweet, girly, flavoured ciders from Sweden."

Emmett cradled his drink defensively. "There's nothing wrong with cider," he said. "And can I help it if my taste buds prefer sweet over bitter? It's not like I chose them to be that way. All my family's are the same, it's our -"

"Curse. Yes, I know." Bella reached for another handful of peanuts, realised the bowl was empty and then gestured in vain to get Riley's attention. A group of rather lost looking businessmen had just entered and after staring around in confusion their gazes had found the girls by the bar, to which they'd made a beeline. Bella couldn't even see Riley over all of their head's. "I suppose we should be happy for the guys that this place has become the latest bar of the moment," she observed, resuming their original conversation. "Even if the new clientele leave a lot to be desired."

"I'm sure that doesn't bother them in the slightest," Emmett said. "Money's money, after all."

"I expect they weren't making too much before," Bella mused.

"Especially not from you, you who nurses one drink all night and eats them out of free peanuts. Also- and I'm not judging you - but last week when it was your turn to get the toilet paper, did you steal it from here?"

"Yes, and I'm not ashamed of it," Bella said, sitting up straighter. "And I'm also not ashamed of the two pint glasses that I snuck home in my handbag last night, and the ashtray I took last Saturday."

"We don't even smoke, Bella."

"I thought it would make a nice bowl for dips. Besides, I'm thinking about taking up smoking."

"You're drinking cheap beer, have eaten ramen noodles for the last two nights, and last week you stole toilet paper instead of buying it. How the hell do you think you're going to afford cigarettes?"

"I'll steal them," Bella said. "I do that now. Steal things. Or I could just bum them, one at a time. People are always asking me if I have a cigarette for them, I can do the same. Besides, I've heard it suppresses your appetite. Which is going to help now that I can't afford to eat."

"Yeah, because you'll be thinking this was a really good idea in ten years when you're dying of lung cancer."

"By then the scientists may have found a cure."

"For cancer or for idiocy?"

Bella frowned into her beer. "Stop it, Em," she complained. "You're ruining all my grand plans."

"Just think," Emmett told her. "If you hadn't dropped out of college you could be well on your way to being one of those scientists who find a cure for cancer."

"Marine biology, Emmett, not human biology. Jeez, how many times do I have to explain the difference? It's not rocket science," she added with a giggle.

Emmett groaned.

Bella sniffed. "I think I'm funny."

"Yeah, I know. You always laugh at your own jokes. But you're the only one who does. So whatever it is you decide to do now you're a college drop out, don't become a stand up comedian."

"Okay, firstly - screw you. I can be hilarious. What about that time I made you laugh so hard you pissed yourself? And secondly - I'm not a college drop out. I'm taking a year off to decide whether I actually want to be a marine biologist or not. I have all intentions of returning to college in twelve months - after I've figured out what I want to do. Which is totally normal," she said defensively. "You know, wanting to make the right decision about what you're going to spend the rest of your entire life doing. Not everyone knew from the moment they were twelve exactly what they wanted to be. Although how you could ever have a passion for accounting I'll never know."

Emmett ignored her jibe. "Hey, I'm not the one saying the whole take a year off thing is a bad idea. I'm not your Dad, remember?"

"I know. I'm sorry. I'm just still a little fired up. Christ, he was such an asshole about it. It's not like I was asking for him to support me for a year while I run around and party. I told him I'm looking for a job. I just thought he'd be able to help out until then. I even told him I'd pay him back."

Emmett hesitated for a moment. "Look," he said, "I don't want to pressure you or anything. And you know I support you in this decision. But seriously, what are you going to do? Because rent is due at the end of the month, and I'm not really in a position to cover your share, which trust me I would if I could."

Bella dropped her head onto the table. "I don't know what I'm going to do," she said, her voice muffled. "And I would never expect you to cover my rent, Em. I'll just have to take the first shitty job I find." She glanced up and towards the bar, where she finally spotted Riley. He was pouring a jug of beer and looking overwhelmed. "Maybe I can get a job here?"

"Don't be offended, but seriously Bells. Customer service is not your forte."

"It's true," Bella said with a sigh, glancing at the group of girls who were still lounging at the bar, blocking access for other customers who were all clamouring for Riley's attention. "I really hate most people. It's why I was going to be such a good scientist, in my lab all day with nothing but beakers and pipetting and micro-organisms. Do you want to know the best thing about micro-organisms, Em? They don't talk back."

"You can be incredibly unsociable," Emmett nodded. "Maybe you can get a job filing somewhere? Or stacking shelves at a supermarket? Or maybe at a library, you'd love that. Peace and quiet, free wireless. The Dewey decimal system. I know how much you love that system."

"I do, I really do. Good old Dewey. Maybe I should have been studying to be a librarian. And I have to say the whole free wi-fi thing would save us a fortune."

"Bella, we don't pay for our wi-fi anyway. We steal it from the guy downstairs, you know the one who comes up with all the stupid names for his connection?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Bella said, then snorted derisively. "Honestly, if you're going to name your connection 'pretty fly for a wi-fi' then you deserve to be hacked."

"Sometimes I wonder if we're getting too old for this," Emmett pondered. "We're twenty-two now, Bella. We should be well on the way to becoming responsible adults. Not stealing toilet paper and wi-fi."

"I had enough of being a responsible adult when I was younger, thank you very much," Bella told him shortly. "Now is the only opportunity I'll have to re-claim my lost youth, cos I sure can't do it when I'm thirty. And besides, you practically are a responsible adult, you with your corporate job and your weekend retreats and your own parking spot in the underground garage." Bella pouted at him. "Em, you're growing up without me."

"Okay, it's a junior accounting position, Bella, it's not like I'm CEO. And it's one weekend retreat, and it's mandatory. Everyone in the company is going, even the receptionist. Besides, it's an all expenses paid trip, I wasn't exactly going to turn that down. And I don't have my own parking spot because I don't have my own car. I catch the bus."

"Not for much longer. You'll be buying some flash car and moving into some fancy apartment and leaving me - oh God, Emmett, please don't move out. Not just because there's no way I could afford the rent on my own, and not just because I think the process of interviewing potential flatmates is horrendous and I hate the idea of living with a stranger - but because I love living with you, Emmett. Even if you do have a serious gas problem. Also, have I told you recently that when you stomp around in the morning while you're getting ready for work that you sound like a dinosaur? Seriously - soft feet in the mornings, Emmett, soft feet."

"You're neurotic," Emmett told her. "Have I told _you _that lately? Anyway, I'm not going anywhere. But I may know of a job opportunity for you."

"You do? Oh my God, Emmett, why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because I only just thought of it."

"Clearly the cider is killing off your brain cells. Okay, what's the job? I'll do anything. Do I get my own parking space?"

"It's not in my office, Bells."

"Then where? The suspense is killing me."

Emmett sighed. "Okay. One of my bosses - well, technically he's one of the three founding directors of the firm, so he's like the big boss guy - he and his wife need a nanny."

Bella sat back in her seat and glared at him. "A baby sitter. You're suggesting I get a job as a baby sitter. Oh my God, Emmett, I'm not twelve. I can't live on five dollars and hour, seven dollars fifty if it's after nine o'clock!"

"It's a nanny job, not baby sitting. I heard him talking about in the elevator the other day. His wife wants to go back to work full time. So it would be like a full time job." He frowned. "I knew you wouldn't be overjoyed, but I didn't think you'd be so negative. You've been a nanny before, what's the difference between now and then?"

"Emmett, I was an Au Pair, it was completely different. It was in England. I only did it so I could travel around Europe. And it was barely even a job, two of the kids were at boarding school during the week and the other one was some kind of savant who spent eight hours a day at the piano. I spent most of the time sitting in their conservatory playing Words With Friends, and sneaking out in the evening to the local pub."

"Look, it's not ideal. But it's a paying job. And you did say a moment ago you would do anything."

"I did," Bella said with resigned sigh. "I am desperate. And I can't live on peanuts and ramen noodles. And I really, really don't want to take up smoking, I like my teeth and fingers not having nicotine stains on them. Okay, I'll do it. I'll take the job."

Emmett rolled his eyes. "Uh, call me crazy, but considering the nature of the job I'm gonna assume they'll probably want to interview you first."

"Formality," Bella said, waving her hand. "Kids love me, hence their parents love me."

"It's not just that. I expect they'd be worried about confidentiality. The wife - she's Tanya Denali. You know, of the Denali Media Corporation."

"Never heard of them," Bella said.

"For a smart girl, you're incredibly stupid sometimes. Denali Media Corp. They only own half the media in the North West. Newspapers, tv channels, magazines, you name it, they probably own it. And he's fairly well known, too. The self-made millionaire, he and his buddies started the firm from scratch, made their first million in less than a year. Won all these awards for his environmentally friendly design concepts. He's a pretty big name in the architecture world."

"Well, I'm a little behind on current events in the architecture world," Bella said dryly. "So enlighten me, who is this potential Time Magazine Man of the Year?"

"Great guy," Emmett said. "You'll really like him. His name's Edward Cullen."

Bella glanced up from the bowl of peanuts. "You know what," she said, "I think his name rings a bell."

"Uh, yeah, probably because I talk about him all the time. He's one of the founding partners of my firm, remember? Paying for this upcoming retreat? I ran into him once in the lunch room and he said I should join him for golf one weekend? Seriously, great guy."

"Sounds like you have a big ol' man crush on him. Anyways, as thrilling as I find your talk about your job, and you know I listen to every one of your water cooler stories with baited breath, but that's not where I've heard his name before. I think I read about him in _The Weekender _a few weeks back. They did a profile on him. It was pretty impressive."

"They would have," Emmett said. "_The Weekender _is one of the Denali Corp newspapers."

Bella wrinkled her nose. "Oh. Well I did think the whole piece was a little too glowing. That explains it. It's not what you know, but who you know."

You're too young and pretty to be so cynical and bitter, Bells."

"Yeah, and you're to old to still sleep with a night light. So bite me."

"Why do I put up with you again?"

Bella smirked at him. "Because I'm the only female friend you have who you haven't slept with. You're just hanging around in the hopes that one day I'll succumb to your charms. Which is going to be never, because, and I may not have told you this in the last hour, but I would rather eat live goldfish than kiss you."

"No offence, Bella, but you lack two things I require in a woman. The first is the desire to cook me breakfast in bed and rub my feet while I eat it. And the second is breasts."

"Excuse me!" Bella said indignantly. "I have breasts! What the hell do you think these are?" She demanded, grabbing her chest. One of the businessmen by the bar, clearly having caught the tail end of the conversation, turned to watch with avid interest in his eyes. Bella ignored him.

"I don't know what they are, but they're less than a handful so as far as I'm concerned, they're not tits." Emmett nodded his head towards a girl who was passing their table with a tray of drinks and a low cut top. "Now those," Emmett said, not bothering to disguise his leer, "are tits."

"Oh my god I hate you."

"You love me. Now you sit here and guard the table while I go up and buy two more of their cheapest drinks before happy hour ends. It's the least we can do after eating them out of peanuts."

"If you go by the bathrooms, pick up some more toilet paper," Bella called to his retreating back.

.

.

.

Bella had some difficulty finding the place. She hadn't been to Mercer Island before, although she'd heard enough about it. That it was one of Seattle's wealthiest suburbs was evident from the moment Bella turned off the Interstate 90 Express and by the time she found the street she was looking for - right on the Lake Washington waterfront - she was starting to feel a little awed.

Most of the houses were set back from the street, hidden from pedestrian view by high fences and hedges. In between, Bella caught glimpses of Lake Washington, a glittering grey, and the Seattle skyline beyond. Most of the properties on the water side of the street were older, more established, however there were some scattered newer builds on the other side of the street.

The Cullens' house, upon first glance as Bella pulled her car up in front of the property, appeared to be the latter. It was stone and weatherboard, with a sweeping driveway that wound past a pillared entryway and ended with a three car garage. However as Bella walked up the driveway, past the manicured front lawn, she began to suspect the it was newer than the style led it to believe.

There was a sleek, cherry red Audi convertible parked in front of the garage, and Bella glanced at it enviously before congratulating herself on deciding to park her car on the street, hidden from view by a thick line of trees. While the house seemed almost demure in comparison to its neighbours, only two storeys and seeming without any sort of fussiness or displays of unnecessary architectural fancy, there was no doubting that its owners had money. And plenty of it.

The entryway was paved with flagstones, the front door simple and white, with a crescent moon window above it and two mirrored glass windows flanking it. There was no knocker, so Bella rapped on it with her fist, only afterwards spying the old fashioned door bell on the stonework beside the door. It was a quaint sort of touch on the otherwise relatively featureless front façade, and the novelty of it made Bella's fingers itch to ring it.

She was denied this pleasure by the sound of footsteps from within, the sharp telltale click of heels upon wood, and then the door was opened by a tall, very thin, very well made up woman that Bella knew straight away was Tanya Denali. Her first impression was that she was very attractive, with creamy, unblemished skin, pale blue eyes, and strawberry blonde hair that was tucked into a perfect chignon. Her outfit, a seemingly casual jeans and sweater, was on closer inspection very obviously designer, and likely cost more than Bella's college tuition. Bella immediately wished she'd paid more attention when dressing that morning, and was suddenly ashamed of her ponytail and two-swipes-of-mascara which was the grand total of her beauty regime.

When Tanya spoke her voice was slightly high pitched, the tone quite formal. "You must be Isabella," she said. "Please come in." She stepped back, and Bella could see past her, into a large entrance hall with wood floors so darkly stained they looked almost black. A double staircase curved to a second floor mezzanine level. The walls were painted a soft grey with white waist high wainscoting, the many prints adorning them framed in black or white. It was all very tasteful, but at the same time almost sterile. The only furniture in the foyer area was an occasional table, which held an odd arrangement of branches and greens that was almost as high as Bella was tall.

"It's nice to meet you," Bella said politely, stepping inside and offering her hand. "And you can call me Bella."

Tanya touched her hand only briefly, it was about as cool as her voice. "I'm Tanya Denali," she said. "Thank you for coming."

"Oh, it's my pleasure," Bella said, with a warm smile, which was not returned.

"Can I offer you a refreshment?" Tanya asked. "A drink, perhaps a coffee?"

"Oh, no thanks. I'm great, thanks."

"Well then," Tanya, her voice somewhat clipped. "Follow me. We'll talk in the living room."

Past the curved staircase the foyer opened up to a wide, airy hallway. The dark floor and grey walls flowed through the house; they passed a number of well presented rooms that Bella got only a glimpse into, before reaching the room that opened up at the end of the hall. Clearly it was a living room that didn't have that much living done in it - everything was immaculate. This was not the sort of room that you sprawled on the couch with your feet up, eating a pint of ice cream. Built in bookshelves lined the far wall, surrounding a gas fireplace set in polished concrete, and were filled with object d'art and what looked like professionally taken family photographs. French doors opened onto a patio, overlooking lush green lawns rolling down to the river. Bella could see a private dock with a decent sized boat moored off it. A little closer to the house was a gazebo surrounded by weeping willow trees, and off to the side one of those pools that had been designed to look like it was a natural part of the landscape. From here it was evident that the house and gardens were far grander than she'd originally thought. Not ostentatious, but undoubtedly more impressive.

Somewhat overwhelmed, Bella focussed on the shelves, noticing the photographs. They were mainly of an incredibly handsome couple - Bella recognised Tanya and guessed the dark haired man with her was Edward Cullen - and a young child at various ages. In a few of the photos they were also accompanied by a very pretty but unsmiling dark haired girl, probably about twelve or thirteen. In an elaborate frame in the centre of the shelves was a large portrait of Tanya in a long white dress, holding a girl of about three, who had red lips, green eyes, and strawberry blonde curls.

"This must be your daughter," Bella said. "She's adorable. You know I used to have hair that same colour when I was her age. It started turning dark when I was about four. You'd never guess to look at me now."

Tanya smiled coolly. "Yes," she said. "That's our daughter, Elizabeth." she hesitated, then said, "And we have another daughter. Mary-Alice. My husband's from a previous marriage. However she is, at fourteen, fairly self-sufficient. So, if you were to be successful for this position, your primary concern would be Elizabeth."

"Oh, okay. I guess I understand," Bella said with a smile, reading behind Tanya's words. "At fourteen I would have been pretty indignant about needing a nanny, too."

"Yes, well. If you would like to take a seat, I'm sure you can also understand that I have a number of questions for the applicants."

Feeling as though she'd been chastised, Bella sat promptly on the sofa that Tanya had indicated to, while Tanya herself lowered herself into a wingback chair opposite her. It was grey and white striped silk, and matched the color of the walls in a way Bella would have marvelled at if she wasn't suddenly feeling so intimidated.

"I normally hire through an agency," Tanya said, smoothing the creases in her jeans as she crossed one thin leg over the other. "As there is a certain amount of screening that an agency will do to narrow down unsuitable applicants. However, my husband claims you came highly recommended." She smiled very tightly then, as though she did not trust her husband's judgement. Bella shifted a little uncomfortably, Tanya was doing nothing at all to make her feel at ease.

"Well," she said, "I hope you'll find me suitable. I'm very interested in the position."

Another tight smile, then Tanya said, "and why is that?"

"Sorry?"

"Why are you interested in the position?"

"Oh! Um, well - it seems to me like a very exciting opportunity, and -"

"Have you been employed as a nanny previously?"

Bella was a little put off by Tanya's formality, by her cool voice and the slightly detached expression on her face. She got the impression that Tanya did not care for her; and was suddenly nervous. "Uh, well I worked overseas as a nanny. As an Au Pair for a family in Surrey, in the United Kingdom -"

"And who were the family?"

"Uh, I provided a reference letter and contact details for them in my resume - Caroline and Mark Bowen. They had two school aged daughters, and one son who was five. Alistair. I mainly cared for him. He was very musically gifted, and it was a really interesting experience working with such an exceedingly talented child -"

"You were a live in nanny?" Tanya interrupted her again. She raised one thin eyebrow. "From what I hear, Au Pairs in England are often just glorified maids."

Bella stiffened a little. "The Bowens had other hired help," she said. "I was there purely to care for the children."

"We have a cleaner here," Tanya said. "She comes four times a week. We've had problems in the past with nannies who have believed the other help were here to help them. This is certainly not the case, and I expect the person I employ to understand this."

Bella wasn't sure how to take this. She felt like she was being accused of something, but wasn't sure what. "I understand," was all she said, with a slightly forced smile.

"I require everyone I employ to have First Aid qualifications."

"Oh, I do a CPR renewal and first aid refresher course annually," Bella assured her. "My father is a police officer back in Forks, my hometown. He made me start doing the courses when I was thirteen, he was adamant that it is every citizen's responsibility to know how to perform first aid. I also had to get an official certification before I became an Au Pair. Oh, and I noticed you have a pool - I worked as a life saver at the pool back home from when I was fifteen to when I was eighteen, so you wouldn't need to worry about Elizabeth around water if I was here."

"Being that it is the middle of winter, I should hope my daughter would not be in the pool in the first place."

"Yes, well, that too," Bella mumbled, feeling more and more incompetent as the interview went on.

"Do you know any other languages, Isabella?" Tanya asked.

"I know a little French, and some Italian," Bella said, trying not to sound thrown by the unexpected question. "I travelled with the Bowens to both France and Italy whilst I was employed with them, and learnt some then."

"But you are not fluent? You have not studied any other language?"

"A little Spanish in high school," Bella said. "But apart from that, no, not really."

"And you've left college before completing your degree?"

"No," Bella said quickly, "I'm just taking some time away. I'm studying Marine Biology, but I want some time to decide whether science is the field I really want to pursue a career in -"

"You don't wish to pursue a career in child care?"

"No," Bella replied, then immediately regretted her honesty. "Um," she fumbled, "I mean, I love kids. I enjoy working with them, and I recognise the importance of the role, particularly when it comes to early learning and development. But, um, it's not my ideal career."

"So tell me then, why are you applying for this position?"

"Because I'm looking for work," she said bluntly, realising there was no point in inventing fancy excuses now. "And this was suggested. Because I enjoy working with children, and I'm good at it, and think it would be a more productive year away from studying working as a nanny than stacking shelves at a grocery store."

Tanya was silent for a moment, and Bella wished she could take it all back.

"I don't wish for my daughter's care to be so disruptive," Tanya said, after a pause. "We've already had three other nannies come and go. Thankfully my daughter is very adaptable. However I do wish to see the situation become more settled. Something long term. I believe it is what is best for my daughter."

"I understand," Bella said, a little stiffly. She wasn't so much disappointed as embarrassed. She'd been so sure she would be a shoo-in for the position, but here it was, not only clear that she wasn't suitable, but just as clear that Tanya did not like her at all. She couldn't help being a little offended, after all what had she done wrong, apart from not being a fit professionally? Besides, she'd gotten the impression that Tanya had pre-judged her, before she'd even met her, and how fair was that? She'd never actually given her an opportunity to prove herself.

Tanya uncrossed her legs, and Bella prepared to stand, expecting to be shown out. But at that moment there were the sound of footsteps from the hallway, and a moment later an attractive older woman stepped into the room with a little girl on her hip, who with her strawberry curls and green eyes could only be Elizabeth.

"Oh, I'm sorry dear," the older woman addressed Tanya, "I hope I'm not interrupting, I didn't know you had guests. I'm just dropping the little one off, I've got to head off to my book club. But we've had a lovely day, haven't we my sweet?"

"Saw the ducks, Mama," the little girl crowed, "and had sammiches!"

The older woman turned her attention towards Bella. "Hello," she said. "I'm Esme Cullen. I don't believe we've met?"

"Oh, no, we haven't," Bella said quickly, getting to her feet. "I'm Bella."

"Isabella was here to see me about the nanny position," Tanya said, also getting to her feet. "I didn't realise how time had gotten away from me. Thank you very much for bringing her back, Esme." Tanya reached for her daughter, who Esme passed over with a kiss to the top of her head. "Oh, aren't you just filthy," Tanya said, tugging at her daughter's dress, which - as far as Bella could see - was pristine. "Right, we'll have to get you straight into a bath, you know your Daddy likes to see you all clean and pretty when he comes home."

Elizabeth had spied Bella, and was staring at her with round eyes over her mother's shoulder. Bella smiled widely at her, and gave her a small wave.

"Hello," Elizabeth said, very clearly. "What's your name?"

"Hi, I'm Bella," Bella replied. "And I already know who you are, you're Elizabeth, aren't you?"

"Yes," the little girl replied, with a slight lisp. "I'm three and a half." She held up three fingers carefully. "That's this many. How many are you?"

"I'm twenty-two," Bella replied. "That's more fingers than I have. But if you put all of my fingers together with all of your fingers, and then two of your toes - that's how many I am."

"Wow," Elizabeth said, her eyes growing rounder. "You're nearly as many as my Mommy!"

Bella glanced at Tanya quickly, estimating the other woman to be no more than twenty six or twenty seven. She was smiling tightly at her daughter's words, with no real hint of amusement on her face.

Esme's smile was more genuine. "Well," she said, "If we're revealing our ages then I believe that's my cue to leave. I've been telling the ladies in my bridge club that I'm still fifty for nearly ten years now, I can't have the truth getting out."

"Yes, well I'll need to get Elizabeth upstairs and into a bath." Tanya turned to Bella, her expression still tight and cool. "Thank you for coming today, Isabella. I will be in contact once I have spoken with my husband. If you'd like to follow me, I will show you out."

"Oh, there's no need for that," Esme said. "I'm heading out that way, Bella you can follow me."

"Thank you, Esme," Tanya said, and without another glance at Bella she headed into the hallway.

"Bye, Bella!" Elizabeth called from over her mother's shoulder.

"See you, Elizabeth. It was nice to meet you."

Bella quickly gathered her handbag, which she'd settled down at her feet, and when she looked up again Tanya and Elizabeth were gone and Esme was watching her. "She's a sweet girl," the other woman said, and for a moment Bella wasn't sure whether she meant her daughter in law or her granddaughter. "And I wish I could see more of her. We have her Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the moment. And her other grandparents have her on Wednesdays. She doesn't seem to mind being shuffled about, though. She's such a friendly little soul. But it would be nice to see some consistency."

She headed out into the hallway, and Bella followed. She noticed the artwork on the walls this time, and even recognised a few pieces from the Art History course she'd taken as a freshman. It would have been pretty amazing to work in a place like this, she thought, not without a hint of regret. The Bowen's had been wealthy, too - Caroline's father was a Lord - but their home had felt much more lived in. Nothing like this. From what Bella had seen, this place was more like a show piece than a house.

"Now, Alice, however," Esme said, as they reached the double front doors, "she doesn't care much for upheaval at all. She likes her routines, that one, I guess they make her feel safe and secure, and with everything she's gone through that is to be expected. I don't suppose you met Alice today?"

"Uh, no," Bella said, not entirely sure how to tell this woman that her appearance had aborted what had been a fairly disastrous interview, as far as interviews went.

"Well, I expect you'll meet her soon enough," Esme continued, stepping back so Bella could pass through the doorway first. "It's a difficult age she's at. And she's always was such an independent young thing. She has a real sense of individualism, that girl. I don't know where she gets it from. Maybe from her poor mother, bless her. She, too was so very strong willed. Yes, indeed she was. Anyway, it was lovely meeting you and I'm sure we'll run into each other again very soon. You have a lovely day, Bella."

"You too, Mrs Cullen."

Bella headed down the path towards the gates as the older woman slid into the driver's seat of a sleek black Mercedes, thinking that it was highly doubtful she would see any of these people again.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Help**

* * *

**2.**

"Epic fucking disaster," Bella told Emmett that night over another two-for-one drink and bowl of free peanuts at the bar, after Emmett had finished work. "That's the only way to describe it."

"It can't have been that bad. You're being melodramatic."

"She absolutely hated me. From the moment she opened the door. It was like she judged me on the spot." Bella sighed into her glass of house wine. "It was the outfit, I'm sure of it. I should have worn a suit or something. But it was my lucky imitation Diane von Furstenburg jersey wrap - it's never failed me like this before. I may as well have been wearing sweat pants. She just made me feel so… So… Inadequate. Honestly. I was mortified the entire time I was there. And then she started asking these insane questions, like whether I was fluent in French or Spanish, and whether I expected the maid would do my job for me. It was just horrible. Anyways, I fucked it up big time because I ended up telling her I was only interested in the job because I needed to be employed for a year while I work college out."

Emmett grimaced. "Well, even I have to admit that probably wasn't the best moment for the truth."

Bella glanced back down at her wine glass, and contemplated stealing it. They only had one wine glass back in the apartment. It would be nice to have a pair, even if they weren't matching.

"This is my future from now on," she told Emmett. "Stealing. Maybe I'll learn how to pick-pocket." She perked up. "Man, I should have stolen something at this place today. Em, you should have seen it. It was amazing. It was like one of those houses you see in magazines. Heck, it probably is in magazines. Like, from the front it looked nice - a bit big, but nothing out of place. But then I saw inside - it was immaculate. Everything matched. Everything was designer. Oh yeah, and they have their own private dock. Of course. You need one when you have your own boat." She drooped again, and went back to picking listlessly at the peanuts. "It never would have worked out, I should have known from the moment I saw the place. As if I'd ever fit in a place like that. I'm some lower-middle class girl from the hicks, and they're clearly Seattle royalty -"

"You're being melodramatic again. They're not royalty, they're perfectly nice, normal people. Anyway, you don't know yet. You still might get the job."

Bella shook her head. "Not likely. Trust me. Anyways, before you got here I asked Riley if they had any jobs going. He's going to ask his boss, he said they might be able to give me a trial. I asked him if I'd get to drink for free if I worked here, and he said no." She frowned. "I don't know if he was lying or not, though. Cos I don't understand why anyone would want to work in a bar if you don't get to drink for free."

Emmett rolled his eyes, then raised one hand. "Bella time is over, and it's Emmett time now. I need you to turn around - discreetly - and tell me whether you think that girl over at the corner table- the one checking me out - is hot or not."

Bella glanced around. She turned back straight away. "Emmett, that's a man."

"Shit," Emmett swore. "I was winking at him the whole time you were talking. Oh God, he's coming over. What do I do?"

Bella grinned wickedly, getting up out of her seat. "I'm going to the bathroom. You're on your own."

"I hate you!" Emmett hissed at her retreating back. She just laughed.

.

.

.

Bella's phone rang early on Friday afternoon. She was lying on the couch with Emmett's beat up old laptop, using the neighbour's wi-fi to look for jobs while she ate dip from the ashtray stolen from the bar and drank milk out of her newly acquired wineglass.

She was tempted to ignore the phone. So far she'd applied for three jobs, and she'd received three phone calls telling her she'd been unsuccessful. The sound of her phone ringing was becoming somewhat disheartening.

But this number was sort of familiar, it had a downtown prefix, but Bella didn't recognise the rest. She answered it, after thickly swallowing her mouthful of dip. "Hello?"

"Isabella Swan?" It was a man's voice, pleasant sounding, if a little clipped.

"Speaking."

"Isabella, I'm Edward Cullen. I'm calling you about the nanny position. I understand you met with my wife on Tuesday -"

"Oh - yeah. I mean, yes." Bella immediately turned on her 'I'm a grown up, I'm a professional' voice, the one she used when speaking to her professors. "It's nice to speak to you, Mr Cullen -"

He cut her off. "Are you still interested in the job? If you are, we'd like to offer it to you."

She was surprised, to say the least, and for a moment shock left her tongue-tied. "You're offer - the job is? I mean, you're offering me the job? Oh wow, that's great!"

His voice sounded impatient then, but considering she sounded like a stuttering imbecile, Bella wasn't surprised. "Yes," he said, somewhat brusquely. She heard a door slamming and rustling noises in the background, and figured he was calling from the office. That was why the number had seemed familiar, it was similar to the number Emmett often rang her from. "Will you be accepting it?"

"I'd be happy too," Bella replied, trying not to sound confused. She had been sure Tanya had hated her. For a moment she wondered if Edward Cullen had gotten his names wrong, if he was meant to be calling someone else.

"Good," Edward said shortly. "About salary, I have your resume here in front of me and what I'm offering is on the basis of your experience, and if necessary we can discuss it again after a suitable time period has passed."

He named the figure, and Bella blinked for a moment before quickly accepting it. It was nearly three times as much as what she'd been paid as an Au Pair. This was like a normal person's wage. Almost as much as what Emmett earned.

"That sounds fine," she said. More than fine, actually. No more ramen noodles and free peanuts. Good bye cheap beer and hello moderately priced wine! She could afford to get her car serviced now, and pay Emmett back for that gas bill she owed him, not to mention all the meals he'd shouted her lately.

His voice began to sound more rushed, and the noise in the background increased. "My wife has asked that you visit tomorrow, just before one o'clock," he said. "To go through the necessary details about schedules and to meet the girls. I won't be there, so if you have any further questions you will need to address them with Tanya tomorrow. We'll require you to start from this Monday."

"Oh, Monday's fine -" Bella began.

"Good," Edward said, sounding distracted. "We'll see you then." Then there was a click and Bella was left with the dial tone.

Elated, Bella tapped out a text to Emmett.

_**Celebratory drinks 2nite are on me.**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

An optimistic part of Bella had assumed that since she'd obviously agreed to hire her, Tanya must have liked her more than Bella had thought. And, now that she was employed and they were going to need to maintain a fairly familiar relationship, that Tanya would perhaps drop her guard a little.

It didn't take Bella long to realise that about this she was wrong.

Tanya greeted Bella at the door with another formal greeting and only the barest hint of a smile, and after inviting Bella in and offering her a refreshment, she immediately launched into the business of schedules and specific arrangements without any pleasantries or small talk.

"Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays," Tanya said. "We will need you from seven in the morning - which is when my husband and I leave for work - until six in the evening, which is when I am due to return. You will not be required either in the evenings, or on the weekend. On Wednesdays Elizabeth stays with my parents, and Alice has pre-arranged after school activities, so we will also not require you then."

Bella was beginning to take Tanya's manner a little personally, but then Tanya introduced her to Angela, the rotund, older woman who was the Cullen's cleaner, and realised Tanya was like this with everyone. Cool. Detached. At least, that's how she was with her hired staff. Bella wasn't sure how she felt about this. The previous family that she'd nanny'd for had been so much warmer, and had accepted her almost as one of their own. She'd been invited on holidays with them, had always eaten dinner with them, and knew they would have been mortified if they'd ever made Bella feel even half as uncomfortable as Tanya was making her feel.

Tanya had pre-prepared lists, and went through each of them in detail. There were lists of contacts for both girls, lists on how to operate the appliances throughout the house, lists on Elizabeth's diet and meal times, lists of household rules and Alice's chores.

"Elizabeth is napping right now," Tanya said then, a little abruptly. "However she should wake soon. And I have asked Alice to come downstairs to meet you." She pursed her lips just a little. "She should be down in a moment."

"And is your husband here?" Bella asked.

"No, he is away on a work retreat," Tanya replied. "He often works long hours," she continued, and Bella thought for a moment that she was volunteering information for an actual conversation, until Tanya continued with, "and it is likely you will rarely see him. But either way, any questions you have about the girls' care should be addressed with myself."

Bella didn't question this, although she did find it curious. She was starting to wonder just what sort of man Tanya's husband was. Clearly one who believed raising the children was not his job.

Tanya then led Bella from the kitchen into the family room, stopping first in the hallway to call Alice's name up the wide staircase. She waited a few moments, but when there was no response she sighed, and kept walking.

The family room, like the other rooms Bella had seen so far, was decorated in soft greys and neutral colours. The furniture was modern, charcoal colored leather sofas and glass coffee tables, and even though this was clearly the more casual of the living areas - it housed an entertainment unit and what looked like a box of Elizabeth's toys was hidden away in a corner - it was still as immaculately presented as though it were going to be photographed at any moment.

"Your home is lovely, I didn't have an opportunity to tell you the last time I was here," Bella said, in an effort to draw some warmth from the other woman.

"Thank you," Tanya said perfunctorily.

"I understand your husband is an architect," Bella persisted. "Did he design it?"

"He did."

Bella was determined not to give up. Tanya, she had learnt from Google, was only twenty-seven, which was only five years older than Bella herself. And while she appeared considerably more self-assured than Bella ever hoped to be, surely the two of them had some things in common.

"And did you do the interior decorating?"

Tanya let out the tiniest of sighs, as though polite conversation was painful. "No," she said. "My oldest sister is an interior designer." And before Bella could ask any more questions she handed Bella a small set of keys, which she pulled from the drawer of a side table. "House keys," she said, "which you will need. You can use the Lexus in the garage to collect Alice, or if you leave the house for any other reason," she continued after a moment. "We keep the spare keys just here." She indicated the same drawer she'd pulled the house keys from.

"Oh, I have a car -" Bella began.

"We prefer that you don't use your own vehicle if you are driving either of our children anywhere."

"Oh. Right." Bella felt her cheeks heat, and wondered if Tanya had seen her pulling up, and felt a rush of embarrassment for her car. Dear little thing that it was, it was certainly no Lexus.

"It is our spare car," Tanya was saying, either oblivious to or not caring to acknowledge Bella's embarrassment, "and my husband and I both have others which we use. However the gas tank should always be full. If you do need to put gas in it at any point you will need to keep a copy of the receipt and we will reimburse you -" she broke off and glanced at her watch, frowning. "Alice!" She called again, an edge of frustration creeping into her voice.

A thin girl with short, messy dark hair and an angular face appeared in the doorway from the hallway. She had amber coloured eyes that were heavily made up with eye liner and mascara, and wore a scowl on her lips. "I'm here," she said, then stared at Bella.

"Thank you, finally," Tanya said. "Alice, this is the new nanny, Isabella. Isabella, this is Mary-Alice - or Alice, as she prefers to be referred to as."

"How are you?" Bella asked her, with a bright smile.

The smile was not returned. Alice folded her arms over her chest. "I'm busy, actually," she replied, a little tartly.

"Alice," Tanya sighed. "We've discussed this. The animosity is both unladylike and unnecessary. Isabella is here to help with Elizabeth."

"Lucky Elizabeth."

Tanya tapped her fingernails impatiently against the tabletop. "Isabella has a copy of your schedule," she continued, as though Alice hadn't spoken, "and will be collecting you from school and your various activities in the afternoons."

"I don't need to be picked up from school or from practice, I've already told you this," Alice said impatiently. "I can get a ride with a friend's Mom, or I'll walk -"

"We've already had this discussion," Tanya said, a sharp edge to her voice.

Alice snapped her mouth shut, looking sullen.

"You are, as usual, to let your father or I know of any other un-scheduled activities so we can make Isabella aware of these. You are not to just leave the house unexpectedly when Isabella is here - you need to let her know where you are going and when you will be back. You are not to use public transport, if you need to be driven anywhere, Isabella will take you."

"It will be like having a private chauffer," Bella joked, smiling at Alice.

Alice didn't smile back. "How embarrassing," she muttered. "None of my other friends are driven around like they're still kids."

"There is no need to be difficult about this," Tanya said, sharper still.

"I'm not being difficult," Alice retorted. "Anyway, I'm doing homework. I need to go back upstairs." She sent Bella a sickly sweet smile. "It was nice to meet you, Isabella." Her voice was sugary. "I'm sure we're going to be great friends."

Bella was sure she couldn't be blamed for being just a little apprehensive.

After Alice's retreat, Tanya turned back to Bella with a sharp look on her face.

"My husband," she said, "tells me he discussed the salary with you."

"Oh. Yeah, he did."

Tanya stared at her for a long moment before saying, "I personally don't agree with what he decided to offer you," she said, sounding a little sniffy. "It's certainly higher than what we were paying the last girl, and she came from an agency and with qualifications."

Well, this wasn't supremely uncomfortable or anything. "Oh." Bella said. "Um."

"I don't tolerate laziness," Tanya said flatly.

Bella was somewhat insulted, but tried her hardest not to show it. She wasn't sure if Tanya was being deliberately rude, or if she was always this way. "Well, you don't need to worry about that with me," she said. "I like to keep myself occupied, and I'm sure both Elizabeth and Alice will keep me busy."

"Yes, well. Alice." Tanya picked up one of the many small, object d'art on the side table by which she stood, and began to turn it over in her hands. She cleared her throat, and spoke again. "Alice is going through a slightly difficult phase," she said, and her voice was tight. "Her attitude can often leave a lot to be desired. It is an issue my husband and I are addressing." There was a slight tremble in her voice at the end, the tiniest hint of vulnerability, the first time Bella had detected any real sort of emotion in her voice at all.

Bella felt a sudden stab of sympathy toward the other woman - it was clear the relationship between Tanya and her step daughter wasn't warm. Bella tried to put herself in Tanya's shoes for one moment. She wasn't that much older than Bella herself, juggling a career and a family and a home, and clearly struggling to get her step-daughter to accept her. Bella imagined the pressure she must be feeling, both from herself and likely from her husband. She wondered again about the type of husband and father Edward Cullen was. Emmett had been full of praise for him, but Bella didn't like to be swayed by other's opinions, she liked to make her judgements herself. All she had so far was a rushed, five minute phone conversation. She was curious to meet him, however from what Tanya had told her of his work schedule he didn't seem to be home very often. Bella frowned as she thought about this - surely with his wife returning to work, one daughter so young and the other causing trouble, he should be home a little more often, there to support his wife? It was possible, of course, that he was unaware of the sort of pressure Tanya would be under. But then again, he may also be aware and not believe it his responsibility. Bella was reminded a little of her father, then. He'd always believed raising children had been the woman's job, that a wife's place was in the home. It had infuriated Bella, and had been one of the reasons her mother had left. She'd had endless arguments about sexism with her father whilst she'd been growing up, but it was a topic they'd never seen eye to eye on.

Thinking about this left a bitter taste in Bella's mouth. Is that what Edward Cullen was like? Sexist like her father?

"I hope I'm not prying," Bella said, a little hesitantly, "but about Alice - may I ask about her mother? I mean, Alice clearly lives here full time, but does she see her mother at all or -"

Tanya placed the small figurine she'd been holding back on the table with a sharp crack. "Alice's mother passed away," she said, her voice clipped, any of the former hint of vulnerability long gone. "I believe that's all you need to know. We're a private family and don't discuss our personal lives with the help."

Bella bristled, but had no time to be indignant.

"Elizabeth should be waking from her nap shortly," Tanya said, stopping in the doorway to the hall and glancing back over her shoulder, her face impassive. "If you follow me upstairs I will get her out of bed and introduce you properly."

The second floor of the house was equally as nice as the first. The grey colour scheme continued upstairs, however all the rooms up here appeared to be carpeted, instead of the dark wood floorboards from downstairs. They passed Alice's room, which had the door firmly shut, with no noise coming from within. "Alice doesn't like many people going in her room," Tanya said, a little stiffly, which led Bella to believe Tanya was frequently refused entry. Tanya then indicated the two double doors at the other end of the wide hallway. "My husband's and my suite," she said. "Strictly off limits, of course, and there will be no need for you to ever enter." She shot Bella another sharp look, then stopped at the door across from Alice's room. It was slightly ajar, and Bella could see in to a dim room, with blinds pulled down over a wide bay window that most likely looked over the rear yard. In a voice gentler than Bella had heard her use before, Tanya spoke her daughter's name. "Elizabeth? Are you awake?"

It was a relief to Bella to see this slightly maternal side of Tanya, watching her as she stepped softly across the room, then lifted her daughter from her bed and into her arms. She seemed human again, a mother and a person, someone really not that different from Bella.

"Hi Elizabeth," Bella said, stepping further into the room. "Remember me? I'm Bella. We're going to play together during the week."

Tanya's head was turned in profile, but Bella could still see the frown that flickered across her features. She wondered if she'd been wrong again, if she should have waited for Tanya's introduction - but honestly, it was a three year old girl, not a high society function. Surely there weren't rules of etiquette applied to these situations.

Elizabeth stared at Bella solemnly. "Hello," she said, in a small, sleepy voice. Then she turned her face into her mother's neck. "Hungry, Momma," she murmured.

"We'll have lunch in a moment. First I would like you to say hello to Isabella. Do you remember what I told you this morning? Isabella will be taking care of you so I can go back to work."

"Don't want you to go," Elizabeth mumbled, then grabbed at a length of Tanya's hair.

Tanya tugged the hair from her daughter's fist, with a stern admonishment. "My hair is not a play thing, Elizabeth. Haven't I told you this before?"

Bella wasn't sure she'd ever heard anyone address someone so young like an adult before.

"Sorry," Elizabeth mumbled. She snuck another peek at Bella, before burying her head back into her mother's shoulder.

Bella stayed for Elizabeth's lunch, in order for the girl to get used to her. Tanya hovered in the background, her eyes following Bella's every move in a way that made Bella unaccustomedly nervous. She was normally so natural and comfortable with children, but even though Elizabeth warmed to her quickly Bella couldn't shake the feeling that Tanya found every move she made and every word she spoke lacking. Once again she found herself wondering just why Tanya and her husband had offered her the job.

Bella had expected Alice to make a re-appearance at some point, however the girl didn't appear, and Bella left, not long before three o'clock, without having seen her again.

.

.

.

With Emmett on his work retreat, Bella was alone at the bar that evening. More crowded than ever, she couldn't find a free booth and had to resort to one of the stools at the bar. This meant she could chat with Riley, and didn't have to push through the crowd to get her drink re-filled, which was a major bonus. But as the bar filled up she was pushed further and further down towards the end, until she was eventually shoved up against the wall with little to no breathing space between her and a large girl wearing not large enough tights. The girl was part of a large group on what appeared to be a hen's night - at least Bella hoped that was why they were drinking out of straws shaped like penises - and after listening to ten minutes of their conversation Bella remembered again why she had so few female friends.

It had been the same all through school. It wasn't that she'd been a tomboy, far from it. She'd hated all sports with a passion and from an early age spent far too much time and attention worrying about her hair and the size of her breasts. It was more of a patience thing. She'd never had much of it - one of the few ways she was similar to her father. Girls were never easy. Boys, however, were. They were easy to befriend, easy to keep happy. Her next door neighbour back in Forks, Jessica with the long ringlet curls that Bella had coveted, had fought and made up with her best friend Lauren more times in ten years than Bella could count. She, however, had made friends with Jake in fifth grade and the entire time they'd been friends they'd never once fought.

It was when they'd stopped being friends and became something more that the fights had started.

As usual, when Bella thought of Jake her stomach began to twist. She resisted the urge to order a shot, only because she was on her own and didn't want to be one of those saddo's who got drunk alone. Thinking about Jake never led to anything good. More often than not it led her to think about her father, and she honestly didn't know which was worse. So she ordered another beer instead, and forced her thoughts to return to her new job, and the Cullen and Denali family. She'd googled both Tanya Denali and Edward Cullen the night before, after she'd heard from Edward, in the hopes of learning more about her new employer's. There was a wealth of information out there about both of them, but Bella had been mainly interested in Tanya. She wasn't sure why - perhaps it was because she really wasn't that much older than Bella herself, and yet her life seemed so together. She'd married Edward six years ago, when she'd been younger than Bella was now. He, at 32, was five years older than her. Bella couldn't imagine being married now, let alone a year ago, and had been surprised to learn Tanya had married so young. And Edward Cullen had been married young, too - to his first wife. There hadn't been much information, and Bella hadn't been inclined to dig deeper, but she'd worked out that with Alice being 14 and Edward being 32, that he must have had her when he was 18.

Back in Forks being married at that age was quite common. Half of the girls in her graduating class had gotten married straight out of high school, most of them because they were pregnant. Bella had just thought it would be different here in the city, she wasn't sure why.

She hadn't read much more about Edward Cullen and his first wife, though, focussed as she'd been on Tanya. The search results for Tanya had been temptingly more glossy. Prior to marriage Tanya had been featured often in Seattle's version of page six, always on the arm of some incredibly handsome and well-connected man. Not that she wasn't well connected herself. Bella had read all about the Denali Media Corp, the family business, which was where Tanya had been working prior to marriage and to where she was returning to employment now.

It was the information that Bella couldn't find from a google search that she was curious about, though. Like why Tanya had kept her own name after marriage, instead of taking her husband's, or even hyphenating. Or whether she was as cold and sharply spoken to her friends as she was with her household staff. And how on earth she managed to look so perfectly put together when she was the mother of a toddler and now working full time - when Bella struggled to look halfway presentable most days and up until today she hadn't even had a job and didn't have so much as a pet hamster to care for.

When it came down to it, despite being intimidated by her, Bella wanted Tanya to like her. Maybe because she'd been on such good terms with Caroline Bowen. Or maybe it was a just a desire to please. Whatever it was, Bella was determined.

.

.

.

Bella had assumed she would meet Edward Cullen on Monday morning, but when she arrived just before seven she was met only with Tanya and the two girls, both of who were eating their breakfast. Tanya clicked around the kitchen in her heels, slipping in her earrings and checking her reflection on the stainless steel refrigerator door, snapping at Alice to hurry up with her breakfast, and rattling off instructions to Bella about what Elizabeth should be fed and when.

As she threw her phone and her wallet into her handbag, she said, almost as an afterthought, "Alice is getting a ride in to school with her friend Charlotte. She has swim practice after school and will need to be collected at four thirty. The address of her school is on the notice board in the pantry."

"I can catch the bus home," Alice muttered, though a mouthful of cereal.

"Alice." Tanya said sharply.

She left moments later, after dropping a kiss on top of Elizabeth's messy head.

"Let's get you dressed, huh?" Bella said to Elizabeth, once Tanya had left. She pulled the toddler up out of her high chair and onto her hip. "Alice, what time will you friend Charlotte's mom be here?"

"In about ten minutes," Alice muttered. "And you don't need to pick me up after swim practice. I'm going to go back to Charlotte's. I'll have dinner there, too."

Bella bit her lip. "Uh, your mom said -"

"She's not my mom," Alice snapped, just as Bella realised her mistake.

"Sorry," Bella said, mentally kicking herself. She remembered what Tanya had said about Alice's mother having passed away, and wondered if she'd just put her foot in it majorly. "What I meant to say was, Tanya's instructions to me were that you needed collecting."

"Well now I don't," Alice said shortly, getting out of her seat and reaching for her school bag, which was propped up against the bench. "And like I said, Tanya's not my mom, so it doesn't matter what she says."

"Okay," Bella said, "in that case I would need to get confirmation from your Dad that it's okay. Have you asked him?"

"No, I haven't asked him!" Alice's face was screwed up. "He's been away all weekend, I haven't seen him since Thursday!"

"Right," Bella said hesitantly. "Is he back at work today?" At Alice's impatient nod, she continued, "well how about I ring him today, and check whether that's okay. And if he says it's okay, I'll call your school and get them to give you the message. But if your Dad says it's not okay, I'll have to come and pick you up. Okay?"

Alice made some non-committal noise. Moments later there was a honk from the driveway, and Alice tore out without a backwards glance.

"Well," Bella said to Elizabeth, who was yawning against her shoulder, "that probably wasn't the best start, was it?"


	3. Chapter 3

**The Help**

* * *

**3.**

Edward Cullen was a hard man to get a hold of. He had a personal receptionist, who put his calls through to his personal assistant. His personal assistant seemed determined to prevent any calls from getting through to him.

"My name is Bella Swan," Bella repeated, for the second time. "I'm his nanny. Well - not his nanny, obviously. But the nanny of his two girls. I just need to check something with him, about one of his daughter's schedules."

"Uh-huh," the personal assistant said, sounding sceptical. "Well Mr Cullen is in meetings today, so unless it's an urgent matter I can't confirm when he will return your call -"

"It sort of is urgent," Bella said, a little impatient now. "It's about his daughter."

"So the call is personal?"

Bella rolled her eyes. "Yes, it's family related."

"Uh-huh," the girl said again, still sounding sceptical. "Look, I'll pass along the message when I see him."

"Thank you," Bella said through gritted teeth, "it's very much appreciated."

She was fully expecting her call to go ignored, but not five minutes later the house phone rang.

Tanya hadn't told Bella whether to answer their house phone or not. She hadn't had to with the Bowen's, the maid had done that. Taking a risk, Bella grabbed for it, answering as politely as she could, "Cullen and Denali residence, Bella speaking."

"Who is speaking? Is this Isabella?"

She recognised the voice immediately. "Oh, thanks for calling me back, Mr Cullen. I hope I haven't bothered you -"

His voice was abrupt. "Is there a problem? Has something happened with one of the girls?"

"No, no, no problem at all," Bella said quickly. "Everything's fine, they're both fine, we're all good -"

"My assistant said your call was urgent."

"Um, well it's just that - I just needed to confirm something with Alice's schedule -"

"Yes?" There was clattering in the background, what sounded like high speed typing on a keyboard.

"She mentioned her friend Charlotte's mother collecting her from swim practice, and then having dinner there. I wasn't able to confirm it with Tanya, as she had already left and -"

"My wife usually manages our daughter's schedules," Edward said, in that same abrupt tone. "Do you not have a number you can reach her on?"

"No - I mean, I do - it's just that, um, this morning when Alice brought it up she, uh, was reluctant to -"

Edward interrupted Bella's uncomfortable stammering. "I see." He sounded irritated now, but Bella wasn't sure if it was at her. "I will call Alice directly," he said. "Please collect her from swim practice this afternoon as scheduled."

"Great, okay - thanks for clarifying -"

"And in future, please contact my wife directly with issues such as these."

He hung up, and Bella was left with the dial tone. A little shocked at this, she stared at the receiver for a moment before putting it down.

She loathed making a judgement without even having met him yet, but the more Bella learnt about Edward Cullen, the less she liked him

"So," she said, turning back to Elizabeth, who was waiting patiently for Bella where she'd left her on the couch, "what do you want to do today, little one?"

Elizabeth's answering smile was huge, and enough to ease the frown from Bella's face. "Play!" She exclaimed, her eyes lighting up.

Bella grinned back. "Well," she said, reaching over to scoop the small girl up into her arms, "play we will!"

.

.

.

As to be expected, Alice was not in a pleasant mood when Bella arrived to collect her. She was standing out the front of her school, a private day school on the other side of the island, her backpack at her feet, her arms wrapped around her chest, and a sullen look on her face. Her hair, still wet from swim practice, dripped down over her makeup free face. Without all the eyeliner and mascara she was actually an extremely pretty girl, Bella realised. Not in a generic magazine sort of way, but in a way that she was really going to appreciate once she was a bit older. Sort of exotic looking. If only she didn't frown so much.

"I'm sorry you couldn't go to you friend's place," Bella said, as Alice slid into the front seat of the Lexus without even an acknowledgement.

Alice just grunted.

Bella sighed a little softly, then glanced at Elizabeth in the rear view mirror before pulling away. Elizabeth was asleep - Bella'd had to wake her from her afternoon nap in order to collect Alice. She was hoping she wasn't too cranky about being woken for too long. Tanya would probably be home soon enough, and Bella didn't think it would be a very good impression if both of the children were cranky.

"Maybe," Bella said, "you can go to Charlotte's tomorrow?"

"Maybe," Alice mimicked sulkily, "Charlotte has other plans tomorrow. And I have yearbook committee tomorrow after school, anyway."

"Oh, right."

"God, isn't it your job to know that?"

Bella's eyebrows shot up. She wished Tanya had given her more information on her and her husband's disciplinary guidelines. All she'd told Bella was that if there were any issues, to refer them to her. Did that mean in the mean time she was supposed to put up with Alice being a little bitch?

"Well," she said carefully, "I'm sure within a few days I'll know all of your schedules back to front. I'll even let you quiz me on them."

"Gee, fun."

Bella decided to give up for the moment. Alice turned the radio on - thankfully not loud enough to wake Elizabeth, and for the rest of the ride back, Bella just enjoyed the car. She could hardly wait to tell Emmett about how smooth it drove, and the electronic windows, and the heated seats and -

Her cell phone, sitting in the centre console, was ringing. She reached for it, and saw that it was the number she'd programmed in for Tanya, and immediately went to answer it.

"You can't answer your phone while you're driving!" Alice exclaimed. "God, are you trying to kill us?"

"It's your - it's Tanya," Bella corrected herself quickly. She pulled over, fumbling to answer it. in the backseat she could hear Elizabeth waking up.

"Hi Tanya!"

"I've been calling the house, where are you?"

"I'm just picking Alice up from swim practice," Bella replied. "We're just on our way home now-"

"Yeah, if you don't kill us before we get there," Alice muttered, and Bella resisted the urge to scowl at her. She'd been a pretty sulky teenager at her age, too, but she couldn't remember ever being this bad. She'd had a pretty healthy respect for people in authority positions, to start with.

"Yes, well," Tanya said shortly, "as it turns out I'm going to be home late tonight, I have an unexpected meeting. I shouldn't be any later than seven -"

"Oh," Bella said, "um, well I don't have any plans so that's fine -"

"So you will need to prepare a meal for Alice as well as for Elizabeth," Tanya continued, as though Bella hadn't even spoken. "My husband may come home before me, but it's unlikely," she finished.

"Okay. Dinner for Alice, got it. Is there anything else I should know?"

"My husband will speak with you about overtime," Tanya said. "I have to go, I'm needed."

Perhaps it was a family thing, Bella thought, staring at her phone, after Tanya had hung up on her. Maybe they just didn't see the point in saying goodbye before they disconnected a call.

.

.

.

It wasn't until well after eight that Bella heard the lock in the front door clicking. Assuming it was Tanya, she continued to read to Elizabeth, who hadn't seemed to notice the noise. But it grew louder, as though whoever it was at the door was struggling with their key. Bella quickly placed Elizabeth on the cushion beside her, and got up, thinking perhaps Tanya had forgotten her key. She'd just reached the hallway when she heard a man's voice from behind the door, making muffled noises of frustration. Then the lock clicked, the door swung open, and a man stood in the doorway. He was tall, dressed in a sharply cut navy blue suit with a white shirt and black tie and carrying a leather briefcase in one hand, and juggling two sets of keys in the other. He had messy, windswept dark brown hair and, when he looked up, eyes the exact same shade of green as Elizabeth's. Bella noticed immediately that he was particularly attractive. All symmetrical features and squared jaw, and really rather pleasing to the eye. This must be Edward Cullen, she realised, and was hurrying forward to greet him when his bark of displeasure made her stop in her tracks.

"Why isn't the damn front light on, Tanya?" He demanded. It was the same voice she'd heard over the phone, but slightly deeper, and considerably more angry sounding.

"Oh," Bella said quickly, "um, sorry - I should have checked it was turned on -"

He stared at Bella, looking completely blank, before a recognition of sorts seemed to dawn across his features.

"Oh. You're the baby-sitter," he said. He did not sound pleased at all.

Bella bristled at both his choice of words and the way he spoke them, but plastered a smile on her face. "Yes," she said politely, "Hello, I'm Bella." Then because she couldn't stop herself, added pointedly, "the nanny you hired." And spoke to only today, she added silently in her head.

He looked down and began to rummage through his briefcase. "I thought your name was Isabella."

"People usually call me Bella," she replied. "And I find it's easier for the younger ones - Isabella can be a bit of a mouthful, all those syllables -"

"Right," Edward cut her off. He'd pulled a Blackberry from his briefcase. "Alice!" He called up the staircase. "Can you come downstairs please?"

Alice's voice drifted down straight away. "I'm on the phone, Dad!"

"Five minutes, then."

He glanced back, looked surprised again to see Bella, then frowned at her. "My wife isn't home yet?" He asked, quite abruptly.

"Uh, no, not yet - she called this afternoon to say she would be a little late. She said seven but I guess she's been caught up. It's fine with me, I can stay later if you need me to, I have no other engagements -"

"That won't be necessary," Edward said, looking displeased again. "You can finish now."

"Oh. Okay, um, well - Both girls have had dinner, and Elizabeth has had her bath, so she's pretty much ready for bed, and I'm happy to stay to put her down if you need -"

"I'm quite capable of putting her to bed," he said shortly, then muttered under his breath, "even though her mother should be here to do this."

Bella blinked a few times, unsure if he meant for her to hear.

"Um, okay," she said eventually. "Well, I'll just grab my things and…" She trailed off. He wasn't even looking at her, it was as though he had dismissed her already. "Right," she said, forcing herself to sound pleasant. "Well it was nice to meet you, Mr Cullen."

He made a noise of acknowledgement, but was typing furiously into his Blackberry and didn't look up. She went back into the kitchen and spent a few minutes gathering her bag and other belongings, then bypassed the living room to say goodbye to Elizabeth. She was still sitting on the sofa, the book in her hands, but now Edward was now crouched down next to her, speaking to her in a low, serious voice. Bella couldn't hear what she was saying, and he cut himself off when she entered.

"Bye Elizabeth," she said, dropping a kiss on top of the little girl's head. "Thanks for letting me play with you today. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye, Bella," the little girl said sleepily.

She glanced at Edward, but he was scooping his daughter into his arms and didn't even glance at her. She was nearly at the front door when she heard his voice calling behind her.

"Seeing as I have no difficulty with multi syllable names, if you don't mind I will continue to refer to you as Isabella."

The words could have been familiar, teasing even, if there had been any hint of pleasantry in his voice. But he was flat and dismissive.

She swallowed her irritation. "Not at all," she returned politely. "Good night Mr Cullen."

She waited until she was safely in her car with the engine running and the radio on before she let out a long groan of frustration. Today had been exhausting. Elizabeth had been a sweetheart all day, but Alice - painful. Tanya and her insistence at being so aloof had stressed her out. And now Edward.

She'd been wondering about Edward Cullen - mainly about what sort of man would marry a woman who could be as cold as Tanya. Her curiosity was satisfied now. No wonder Tanya was so cold, married to someone like him. Tanya might be a bit of a bitch, but Edward Cullen was a complete prick.

.

.

.

By Thursday, Bella had become more familiar with her new job, and was starting to relax enough to begin to feel comfortable in the Cullen/Denali home. Tuesday had been problem free - she'd picked Alice up from her after school yearbook committee meeting without a hitch, Tanya had arrived home at six on the dot, and while she hadn't been warm with Bella she had thanked her for feeding Alice and cleaning the kitchen afterwards.

Wednesday she'd had off - Elizabeth going to her grandparents house and Alice doing undisclosed after school activities. Bella had taken the opportunity to go shopping to pick up a few new outfits more suitable for playing with a three year old in. She'd also on a whim had her hair trimmed and her nails polished, something she hadn't done in ages, and had arrived at seven o'clock on Thursday morning in her new outfit and all dressed up, almost like battle armour. As usual Tanya was impeccably put together, but today Bella hadn't felt half as ratty in comparison, with her neat hair and polished nails and brand new jeans. And it may have just been confidence, but she hadn't been half as intimidated by Tanya as she'd rattled out her usual morning instructions.

She'd spent the morning with Elizabeth at the waterfront park a few blocks, seeing as it was a rare sunny day, and when Elizabeth had gone down for her afternoon nap Bella had even felt confident enough to turn on the television and watch for a little while, without being paranoid that Tanya was going to ring her and accuse her of being lazy.

Alice had come home from a friend's house not long after Elizabeth woke from her nap, and instead of going straight upstairs and ignoring Bella for the rest of the day, as was her custom, she hung around downstairs in the living room, playing with Elizabeth while Bella prepared Elizabeth's dinner. She even hung around while Bella fed Elizabeth, leaning up against the bench in the kitchen, typing away on her phone. Bella had risked asking her a few questions about school, which Alice had reluctantly replied to. It was almost pleasant, sitting in the kitchen with the two of them as the sky outside turned dark and rain began to hammer at the windows. Then Bella must have pushed her luck too far because Alice snapped something about the third degree and stormed into the living room to watch tv.

Bella put Elizabeth to bed early, seeing the little girls' yawns, and was cleaning up in the kitchen when a heavy footstep and a voice behind her had her jumping nearly out her skin. Whirling around, dish towel in one hand, she saw Edward only a few steps away, hair rain darkened and dripping slightly, watching her with a frown on his face.

"Oh - God, you scared me," she exclaimed, her hand over her chest. "I didn't hear you come in - the rain and all -"

His frown deepened. "Sorry," he said, without any hint of a smile, "should I knock before I enter my own home?" Before waiting for Bella's reply, he asked, "I take it my wife isn't home yet, then?"

"Uh, no," Bella said quickly, taking two steps away. He was taller than she remembered, bigger almost, and standing so close he was kind of intimidating. "Um," she repeated, realising she was staring at his chest and quickly looking away, "but she said this morning when she left that she might be a little late -"

"Where are the girls?"

"Elizabeth is in bed already, she was a little tired out, probably from the park this morning. And Alice is just in the living room watching tv -"

"If you could write down the additional hours you've been doing and leave them for me, I'll arrange overtime payments," Edward said, turning away. Bella got the feeling that he was dismissing her. Like Monday night all over again. She suddenly felt very small and very insignificant.

"Okay," she said quietly. "Um, well unless you need me to stay -"

"I'm quite capable, I assure you Isabella."

She bit her lip, suppressed the urge to shoot back a sarcastic reply. Instead she rinsed her hands off, then went into the living room to grab her things. Alice was lying on the couch, the television on in the background, but her eyes were glued to her phone.

"I'm off," she said, as brightly as she could. "See you tomorrow, Alice."

Alice grunted. It was more of a reply than she was expecting. And better than the silent treatment from this morning. All in all Bella thought it was an improvement.

She turned back around, and saw Edward leaning in the doorway, his arms folded across his chest, watching the scene with a frown on his face. Bella's face burst into flames.

"Alice," he said, disapprovingly, "it's rude to ignore someone when they address you directly."

Alice made a big deal out of sighing, looking up and saying, "Bye, Isabella," in a dispassionate voice.

"Bye," Bella muttered again, and got out of there as quickly as she could.

She was embarrassed, because it was obvious Alice didn't like her, and how did that reflect on her professionally? She was a nanny, she was meant to be able to control her charges. She wasn't sure what Alice's problem with her was - but Bella couldn't assume that Alice's only problem was with her. The girl was 14, Bella remembered that age. It really wasn't that long ago. The age of endless problems, each one worse than the one before it. All the problems Bella could remember were probably only scratching the surface of what Alice was dealing with. She wondered for a moment about Alice's mom, Edward's first wife. When Bella had done her google search last week she'd found many articles about him, most of them focussing on her professional life, but a few of them briefly mentioning his private life. A few had mentioned his first wife, but only in passing. She thought she may have read in one that it had been a car accident that had resulted in her death, but she couldn't remember much more than that. She wondered how long ago it was. Had she and Edward still been together when she'd died, or had they split up? She wondered if it was recent - that would certainly explain Alice's moods - but surely if that was the case she would have been informed.

She figured if she really wanted to know, she'd have to do another google search. After all, it wasn't like she could ask any of them. Tanya had made it quite clear she wasn't prepared to discuss anything more private than their eating habits. Alice was about as likely to confide in Bella about anything than she was to invite her to have a sleepover. And the thought of asking Edward Cullen about his previous marriage - or anything at all - made her heart thump nervously.

She'd thought Tanya had intimidated her. Tanya had nothing on her husband.

.

.

.

"So, how is it going? How's the bitch from the deepest depths of hell?"

They were at the bar again, which was even more crowded than usual, being a Friday night. There was the usual university crowd, plus the new group of regulars, and tonight a few older men in football jerseys, seated in the booth next to Emmett and Bella's, who kept glancing around them in confusion, as though they weren't entirely sure they'd come to the right place.

Emmett had been waiting for Bella when she'd arrived, just after six-thirty. She'd been worried she wouldn't make it - that morning Tanya had told her to expect her home by five. However she'd rung at five thirty to say she was working late again. Bella had been moments away from texting Emmett and cancelling their plans when Edward Cullen had also called. She assumed he'd also heard from his wife, because his voice had been terse when he'd told Bella he was on his way home, so she did not need to bother with dinner for the girls. She'd disappointed herself by being intimidated by him again when he's strode through his front door, just before six. As he had the night before, he'd been dismissive of her, barely glancing in her direction and making only the slightest acknowledgment when she'd bade them all a farewell - even Alice's begrudgingly (but voluntarily) returned "bye" had held more warmth, and that was saying something.

"You mean Tanya? Oh, she's not really so bad, she's just kind of cold. And I think she has this whole 'upstairs, downstairs' attitude. I keep expecting her to refer to me as 'the help'."

Emmett wrinkled his nose. "What is this, the 1950's?"

"Yeah, it's a bit like that. But I'm putting my indignity aside because of the perks."

"The perks?"

"Oh, you know. The brand new Lexus 500 series that I have free use of during the day. Their amazing house. Did I tell you they have a theatre? A whole theatre, in their basement, with a 3D screen. Their deck and boat - not that I expect I'll ever get to go out on it, but still. What else? Oh yeah, the pantry. I won't be needing to eat at home anymore, that's for sure."

"What about the kid? Is she like her mother?"

"Elizabeth? Nah. She's a little cutie. So far we're getting along like a house on fire, she thinks I'm the best thing since sliced bread."

"And the other one? Didn't you say there was an older one?"

"Oh yeah. Alice. The husband's daughter from his first marriage." Bella frowned. "Yeah, I'm not sure what the deal is with her. But let's just say we're not going to be best friends any time soon."

Emmett affected a shudder. "Kids. I don't know how you deal with them at all."

"You don't like kids?" Bella was surprised.

"I can't relate to them," he said, with a shrug. "They make me feel all awkward and uncomfortable. The younger ones have no social awareness. Like how they just stare at you, straight in the eyes. It's creepy. And as for the older ones, I always feel like they're judging me."

"Emmett, you're adorable. Seriously. Who ever would have thought you - this big bear of a man - would be scared of kids."

"Fuck off, I'm not," Emmett huffed.

Bella rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say. But you know what, the more I think about it, I think that's what put me off the most about Tanya. I don't think she relates. She talks to Elizabeth like she's an adult already."

"Maybe it's one of those new fangled parenting techniques?"

"Maybe," Bella said doubtfully. "Anyways, I almost feel sorry for her after meeting her husband. He's a jerk, that one."

"Edward Cullen? I hope you're kidding."

"Why would I be? You know, I thought he was really abrupt on the phone with me when he rang me to tell me they wanted to hire me. But I just assumed it was because he was calling from work and he probably had about a million other things to do. But I don't think that was the case - I think he's just rude. Especially after today."

"Are you sure you met the right guy?"

Bella rolled her eyes. "He lets himself into the house with his own key, and both of the kids called him Dad. I'm pretty sure he's Edward Cullen."

Emmett frowned. "Edward Cullen is one of the nicest guys I know. Did I tell you he wants me to play golf with him and his buddies next weekend?"

Bella scoffed. "Yeah, of course he plays golf. I know his type."

"His type?" Emmett was looking genuinely confused.

"Yes, his type," Bella repeated. "One of those secret chauvinists. Big shot with his trophy wife and display house. Thinking that the woman's place in the home. He's clearly not happy about Tanya going back to work, I expect he wants her tied up in the kitchen, cooking for him and looking after his kid. There to kiss him when he comes home and make him feel like a big man. I bet he's having an affair with his secretary, or something really tacky like that."

"Uh, that really doesn't sound like him at all. And he's definitely not having an affair with Barbara, she's about seventy years old and looks like a plucked chicken in a wig."

Bella tried to shake that mental image out of her head.

"I know the guy, Bells," Emmett continued. "And he's not like that at all. Really, you've got him all wrong."

"You know the guy from his work life. I know him from his personal life. I've seen him inside his own home, Emmett. Men are completely different at work to how they are at home. Trust me, this guy is an asshole."

"Bella, he's not an asshole. He's one of the most genuine, generous guys I've ever met. My supervisor says she's never even heard him raise his voice."

"Probably saves all of his yelling for home, then."

"Why on earth do you dislike him so much?"

Bella recalled the look of dissatisfaction on his face when he looked at her, the way he spoke to her so dismissively. She thought of how to explain it to Emmett without it sounding like she just had her pride wounded.

"I just do," she replied.

"Well, that's a logical argument if I've ever heard one," Emmett said sarcastically.

"Look, he just isn't nice," Bella said, exasperated. "He's rude to me. He referred to me as the baby sitter, and made it sound like I was scum. And today he barely even managed a grunt at me."

"I'm sure you're just being melodramatic again. And can I remind you that you are the baby sitter?"

"I'm a nanny," Bella snapped. "There's a difference, Emmett."

"Not to most people there isn't," Emmett replied. "It's one of those things, you know like the difference between a barista and a guy who works at a coffee shop. Or a waiter and a sommelier. No one knows this shit. Anyway, I'm sure he wasn't trying to offend you."

"It was the way he spoke to me," Bella tried to explain. "The way he looked at me. Like - like he really didn't want me there. It made me feel really uncomfortable. More uncomfortable than Tanya does, actually. She's all cold and aloof and snobby. I can deal with that. But he - he was different."

"Different how?"

"I don't know," Bella said, a little snappishly because now she was feeling like a fool. "Just different, okay? Anyway, I'm over talking about this. I'm going to get more drinks. I can buy them now because even if he's a jerk, Edward Cullen is bloody generous with his money."

"That's cos his a nice guy!" Emmett called after her as she walked away.

Edward Cullen was nice to look at, that much Bella would admit. Kind of gorgeous, actually, if she was being honest with herself. But in her opinion he was most definitely not a nice guy.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Help**

* * *

**4.**

In her first months working for Tanya and Edward, Bella came to expect a few things as standard.

First was that no matter what she did or what she said, it was becoming more and more likely that Tanya was never going to warm up to her. And she didn't know if she was being a fool or if she just couldn't help herself, but despite realising this as fact, she couldn't stop trying to ingratiate herself with the other woman, complimenting her on her hair or outfits or the new throw pillows in the living room. And even when they were met with no more than an grudglingly offered "thank you", still she couldn't stop herself from trying. It was like the more she was re-buffed the more desperate she became. And she couldn't even work out why she wanted the other woman to like her - the fact was Tanya was not the sort of person she could see herself being friends with - she was so focussed on image and class structures - and if she was honest about it she didn't even like the woman. Emmett told her it was a psychological need to be loved and accepted by everybody, and that maybe she should work on her neediness because no man wanted a clingy girlfriend, and maybe this was why she was still single? Bella's response had been to kick him in the shins.

The second was that two of the household occupants were determined not to accept her, for reasons she couldn't understand. Alice's behaviour - as frustrating as it continued to be - she could forgive; after all, she was fourteen years old, and Bella had been fourteen once, too. Fourteen wasn't fun. She knew what it was like to hate everything and everyone for no apparent reason. She knew what it was like to suddenly recognise the idea of authority and how it seemed to be at war woth every one of your newly discovered ideals. And Bella remembered what Esme Cullen had told her, when they'd met on the day of Bella's disastrous interview - how Alice favoured routine and didn't adjust so well to change. Because of this Bella was determined not to take Alice's dislike personally.

Edward's behaviour, however, she could not forgive so easily, and not just because he was a 32 year old man and should know better. But because he had been the one to employ her, therefore he had no reason to treat her as though the very idea of having her in his house made him uncomfortable. He continued to make no effort to disguise the fact that he found her presence distasteful, dismissing her both literally and figuratively whenever he saw her. It was a struggle not to take it personally - for a while she had been worried that she was smelly (a lingering paranoia from her childhood, where a particularly witty boy in her second grade class had nicknamed her "Bella-Smeller") and had insisted Emmett do a "smell-check" on her every day before she left. Then she worried that he thought she was perhaps hideously unattractive and that looking at her hurt his eyes, although she'd never had any complaints in the looks department before. She hadn't even entertained the idea that he didn't think she was doing her job well, because she knew for a fact that she was. Alice may hate her, but Elizabeth thought she was the bee's knees, the absolute cat's pyjamas, and never hesitated in vocalising her adoration. Besides, Bella was good with kids. She always had been. She knew damn well she was doing the job just fine.

Finally she'd given up, realising whatever the problem was, it was at his end and not at hers, and if he wanted to be rude that was his perogative. Although admittedly he hadn't actually been rude per se since their first few encounters. It was more that he remained dismissive. And particularly the fact that he either hadn't recognised how rude he'd been, or he was well aware of it and didn't care enough to apologise. Both were as bad as each other, Bella decided. And the more time passed, the less inclined she was to forgive him.

Despite Emmett's adulations, and the fact that the entire architectural world seemed to be in raptures over him, Bella Swan was not a fan of Edward Cullen. She had no idea how he had managed to cultivate this image of being such a nice guy.

And the third fact she'd come to realise was, that even if the house started crumbling around them or a volcano erupted in their back yard, Tanya was going to do her damndest to pretend like everything was just fine and that she was in total control. She seemed obsessed with maintaining the image that they were the ideal family. And it was highly possible that Tanya had gotten her blueprints for the ideal family from Stepford Wives or commercials from the 1950's. Regardless, Tanya was determined to present this image to the public - and Bella, to Tanya at least, was still just a member of public - therefore the facade had to be maintained at all times when Bella was present. This meant that Bella had never witnessed so much as even a minor dispute between her and Edward, or anything more than a slightly terse word spoken to Alice when she was being what Tanya referred to as "difficult".

Which was why it was so strange to arrive on Monday morning, well into her second month with the family, to hear the sounds of an argument coming from the kitchen. What it was about Bella wasn't entirely sure, because it ceased the moment they heard her footsteps in the foyer. Concerned that they thought she was eavesdropping she made a big deal about closing the front door behind her and jingling her keys, but still hesitated before proceeding down the hall. Now there was just silence. She certainly hadn't imagined the raised voices though - she'd been able to make out Alice's quite clearly as she'd stepped over the threshold. She'd been yelling about someone deliberately trying to make her life miserable. Who this someone was hadn't been specified. But she'd seen the glares Alice often shot at her step-mother whenever her back was turned, and had heard her angry muttering more than once, and deduced that it was likely Alice was referring to Tanya.

Bella assumed her arrival had heralded the end of the dispute, for now at least. But as she headed up the hallway towards the kitchen she heard Tanya say, "You're being ridiculous, Alice. I won't stand here and be spoken to in such a manner." Her voice was low, clearly not wanting Bella to overhear, and icy cold. She was often brusque when speaking to her step-daughter, but Bella had never heard her address her like this before.

Edward's voice wasn't as muted as his wife's. He sounded frustrated as he said, "Alice that was uncalled for - please apologise to Tanya -"

And Alice clearly didn't care one iota about who heard her, because she shrieked, "Me! Apologise to her? Are you kidding, Dad? She's the one who should be apologising to me!"

Then there was the clicking of Tanya's heels, growing closer. "This is ridiculous," she was saying, her voice almost a hiss. "I refuse to continue this conversation. I'm going to be late for work." And moments later she appeared in the hallway. She looked completely unruffled, not a hair out of place as usual, but as she grew closer Bella could see the faint tell-tale signs of red in her cheeks and down her neck.

"Good morning!" Bella said perkily, in an attempt to convince Tanya she hadn't heard anything she wasn't meant to have.

Tanya just brushed past her. "I'm leaving for work," she said. "My husband will give you any instructions for today." The front door slammed behind her.

Bella was expecting the kitchen to be a state of destruction. But of course it was immaculate as usual, no sign that anything other than the ordinary morning routine had taken place. Although perhaps, Bella thought to herself as she stepped through the archway, this was the normal morning routine, and she just hadn't witnessed it before.

Certainly she got the feeling this was an argument that had been had before, perhaps many times. Alice was sitting at the table, her arms folded across her chest, cereal bowl in front of her. Bella could almost see the indignation rolling off her in waves. Behind her, with one hand resting on her shoulder stood Edward. He was watching through the window as Tanya eased her little red convertible down the driveway with a look of resignation on his face. He barely noticed Bella's entrance until she chirped another bright, "good morning!"

Alice ignored her. Edward looked almost startled, then schooled his features into a neutral expression and nodded at her. He looked like he was going to say something, but didn't get a chance, because at that moment Elizabeth tore into the kitchen, her face bright with excitment, still in her pyjamas with her hair sleep-mussed, and threw herself at Bella's legs.

"Bella's here! Bella's here!" She shrieked. "Dad, look! Ally, look!"

Bella hoisted the little girl into her arms, easing her handbag onto the bench before shifting her more securely to her waist. "Hey munchkin," she greeted her young charge, wiping a smudge of peanut butter from her flushed cheeks.

"I missed you!" Elizabeth said, wrapping her arms around Bella's neck.

Bella knew Edward's eyes were on her, taking in the scene, and this sort of scrutiny normally would make her nervous. But today she ignored him, and instead gave Elizabeth a returning hug. "I missed you, too," she told her. She was only one small little girl, but right then she made Bella feel like all the hostility from the rest of the family was worthwhile.

.

On the afternoons that Bella picked Alice up from school or her various activities, Alice had taken to leaving the ear buds to her iPhone in for the entire car ride home, although half the time Bella suspected she wasn't even listening to music and was doing it purely to be rude. However, on the day that Bella had overheard the argument, when Alice slumped into the front seat she didn't have the ear buds in. She did turn her face away and lean her head against the window, though, and responded to Bella's enquiries as to how her day had been with just a grunt. When they got home, Alice headed straight upstairs as usual, and when Bella went up not long later to fetch a sweater for Elizabeth so they could have one final play outside before the sun went down she was expecting to see Alice's door firmly shut. She was surprised, however, today to see the door open, and Alice curled up on her bed with a book.

"_Lord of the Flies_," Bella said, hesitating just near the doorway. She recognised the cover. "Is that for homework?" She asked.

She was expecting another grunt, or no reply at all. Instead Alice muttered, "No. I just like it."

"Me, too," Bella said. "I had to read it in ninth grade. That and _The Diary of Anne Frank_. Have you read that one?"

"Seventh grade English," Alice muttered. She didn't look up when she spoke, but Bella was encouraged just by the fact that she was willingly responding to her.

"I saw Anne Frank's house," Bella told her, taking a step closer to the doorway, and noticing the garment bag draped over it. "When I went to Amsterdam. It was amazing. And really, really sad."

Alice was silent for a long moment, and Bella had just decided that she must have used up her quota for conversation, when Alice actually looked up at her and said, "my friend Charlotte, her Dad is German. Like, his parents are. He was born here in America. But last year he went to Germany, and he went to see Auschwitz. Charlotte said when he got home he wouldn't even talk about it. He just said it was the worst thing he'd ever seen, and that the biggest crime in the world would be to forget."

"I think he's right," Bella said. "You know, it doesn't really seem real until you see actual evidence that it occured."

Alice glanced up. "Have you been to Auschwitz, too?"

Bella shook her head. "No. I was going to go, while I was in Germany. But I changed my mind. When I was in London I went to see the Holocaust Museum, and it was very distressing. I don't think I was brave enough to see an actual camp. I regret that, now, of course. It shouldn't have mattered whether I was brave or not, I think it's important that we see these things so we realise they were real, and so they never happen again."

Alice was watching her with actual interest. When Bella finished speaking she said, "I don't think I'd be able to go to one, either."

Encouraged, Bella took another step closer to the doorway, close enough to reach out and touch the garment bag that was hanging over it. "So, what's this?" She asked lightly.

Alice glanced up, saw the garment bag, and her features darkened into a scowl. "It's a dress," she grunted. Then added, "a revolting dress."

Bella tried for some light humour. "Weird name for a brand," she said.

Alice just rolled her dark eyes. "No," she replied. "I mean it's an actual dress, that's actually revolting." The scowl turned darker. "Tanya bought it for me."

This obviously was not a good thing.

"Oh. Well, why is it revolting?"

"Because it just is," Alice said. "Everything she buys me is revolting."

Bella personally thought Tanya had pretty good taste. She always looked great. She couldn't picture her picking up something hideous for Alice - Bella got the feeling Tanya wouldn't allow anything hideous even into her house. Bella figured thant that this was more about personal taste.

"Not your sorta style, then?"

Alice snorted. "Hardly," she muttered. Then added, "as if I'm going to wear yellow lace."

"Is it for any special occasion?"

The scowl was back. "My aunt Irina's birthday party this weekend," she said. The scowl deepened. "Although she's not really my aunt. She's Tanya's sister, and Tanya isn't techincally related to me, so that means Irina isn't really my aunt." She hesitated, then said, "She does this all the time. Tanya, I mean. Buys me these stupid outfits that look ugly on me, and gets pissed off when I don't wear them. She just wants me to look like some clone, like Irina's kids. She has all these ideas about how I should dress, and which friends I should have, and what activites I should have to do after school." Then she smirked. "She used to try and make me wear my hair a certain way, too. At least, until I cut it all off. Her expression when she saw it was priceless."

"Well, that's certainly an effective way of protesting," Bella said.

Alice rolled her eyes. "It didn't matter, anyway. She keeps doing it. Now she wants me to take ballet classes." She made a face. "I want to take hip-hop, but there's no way she'll let me. It's not proper, it's not what _young ladies_ do. As if I care about that. But she does - it's all she cares about - making sure we're doing everything right. She doesn't care whether I like it or not, as long as she looks good in front of her friends."

"What does your Dad say about it?"

Alice frowned at this. "I don't want him to get involved," she said shortly. "It's not fair on him. He shouldn't have to choose between what I want and what she wants."

This surprised Bella. "That," she said, "is a really mature way of looking at it. But at the same time, don't you think he would want to know, and that he would want to help?"

"That doesn't matter," Alice said. "I can sort this out on my own."

"Well," Bella said, "I suppose you can cut your legs off, like you did with your hair. Then you definitely won't be able to take ballet classes."

Alice looked like she wanted to smile. Her lips twisted, but she turned away, as though she didn't want Bella to see.

"Seriously, though," Bella said, taking a step further into the room, closer to the bed where Alice was lying, "have you thought that perhaps your Dad would like to know, and that he would want to help you and Tanya come to some sort of agreement?"

"Right," Alice said flatly. "Like I want to give Tanya another reason to hate me."

"I'm sure she doesn't hate you -"

Alice glared at her. "Look, you don't understand, okay? You've got no idea what she's like."

"No," Bella agreed, "I guess I don't. I don't know her the same way you do. But I know your Dad loves you, and surely he wouldn't have married someone who didn't genuinely care about you -"

"What the hell do you know?" Alice shot back. "You don't know anything about my life!" She picked her book back up and rolled over, presenting Bella with her back. "I'm busy."

"Right," Bella said, a little disappointed. She thought she'd been making progress, but now it felt like they'd taken about ten steps back. "Well look, if you want to talk about anything -"

"With you?" Alice snorted. "Yeah right. I'm not stupid. You work for Tanya. You're probably going to tell her everything I just said. Whatever, I don't care. She knows I hate her anyways."

"Alice, I wouldn't tell Tanya anything you told me in confidence -"

"Whatever. I said I'm busy. Can you just leave?"

Disappointed, Bella headed back downstairs.

She was sitting with Elizabeth at the kitchen table not long later, helping the little girl with her snack, when she heard the sound of a key turning in the lock of the front door. She glanced at the clock in surprise, sure it wasn't six o'clock already. She was right, the clock read only five past five, and assuming it was just Angela returning to perhaps collect something she'd forgotten, Bella remained seated.

She was popping a piece of banana bread spread with cream cheese into Elizabeth's mouth when she heard the sound of a softly cleared throat behind her, and turned in some surprise to see Edward standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Daddy!" Elizabeth shrieked. "Look! Look what I did!"

To Bella's dismay, she pointed straight to the many messy lumps of cream cheese on the table in front of her. "Look, I made snowmen!" The small girl crowed.

"Wow, very special," Edward said, stepping forward to kiss his daughter's cheek. As he did, he glanced at Bella with one eyebrow raised.

"Uh," Bella said, a little nervously, "would you believe me if I said she showed great promise as an artist?"

"Cream cheese is a medium I'm not familiar with," Edward said, his face was straight but there was hint of what sounded like amusement in his voice.

"It's fairly obscure, yes," Bella nodded. And gathering her courage, she continued, "But really, it's quite groundbreaking. It's possible she's a child prodigy."

"Is that so?" Edward murmured, reaching out and gathering a lump of cream cheese with his finger, then bringing it to his lips. "Hmmm, edible art," he said. "Possibly my favourite kind."

"I'm sorry about the mess, though," Bella said, and got to her feet. "I wasn't expecting you home so soon, or I would have cleaned up -"

"I left work early," Edward said. He stepped past her and headed towards the fridge, where he pulled a bottle of water from the side door. "I usually go to the gym on Monday afternoons."

Indeed he was wearing work out clothes, Bella realised, noticing his navy blue sweat pants and a grey University of Washington alumni hoodie. There was a gym bag just by the entrance to the kitchen, presumably where he'd dropped it when he'd come in. And for some reason this made him look younger than he usually did. And not just that - but more approachable. Less intimidating. Like an actual person.

"But I cut my session short today," he continued, opening his water and taking a long swallow. "I thought I would come home early and see Alice."

"Oh," she said. "I think she'd really like that."

Edward glanced at her quizzically. "Oh?" He said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Bella hesitated, not wanting to divulge what Alice had told her earlier, remembering what she'd told her about not wanting to get her father involved. She didn't want to break Alice's confidence. So all she said was, "yeah, she seemed a bit down this afternoon."

Edward quirked his left eyebrow a little, as though he knew she was hiding something, but didn't question her further. "Is she downstairs?" He asked her.

Bella shook her head. "No, she's upstairs in her room." She hesitated. "So, I'll just clean this up, then if you want I'll just go after that -"

"Yes. Thank you." He was already heading upstairs.

"No worries," she mumbled to his retreating back.

.

.

.

Angela, the family's chatty Hispanic cleaner, was the only person over the age of 3 at her new workplace that Bella got along with. Bella had taken to having a cup of coffee with her and sometimes Carmel, the cleaner from the house next door, each morning at eleven, just after Elizabeth had gone down for her morning nap and when Bella was at a bit of a loose end.

Despite both claiming they did not like to gossip, Angela and Carmel had all the info. They told Bella about the messy divorce of the couple in the new house across the road, and how the father of the family two houses down had lost his job for embezzling from the company he worked for, and all about the young son of the couple Carmel worked for, who was constantly in trouble with the law.

"He is a troublemaker," Carmel said of him, shaking her head fondly. "But so handsome. He will break some hearts." She'd eyed Bella speculatively. "He is young like you," she said. "And you are a pretty girl. Maybe I will introduce you? You two would make lovely, lovely babies."

"Wow," Bella replied. "Um, I'm flattered that you would think of me, really I am. And touched that you care about the beauty of my potential babies. But I'm really hoping to meet someone who doesn't have a criminal record. I know - I'm aiming kinda high. But a girl can dream, can't she?"

Carmel fixed Bella with one of her stern looks. She didn't approve of Bella's cavalier attitude towards marrriage. So far she'd tried to set Bella up with both of her two sons, and the son of the lady who lived in the apartment next to hers. She was determined to marry Bella off as quickly as she could.

"A beautiful girl like you," she told Bella firmly, "is a waste. You should be married. You should have your own family. You need to find a husband before it's too late."

"Too late as in I've lost my looks and my boobs are hanging down to my knees, or too late as in all the good ones have gone?"

Carmel shook her head at Angela, who shook her head in return, then they both turned to Bella, shaking their heads some more. "I do not understand the children today," Carmel said.

As well as neighbourhood gossip, Angela knew all about the Cullen and Denali family. She told Bella she'd worked for Edward long before he'd re-married. How she'd known Alice since she was only a little girl, only a little older than Elizabeth was now.

"So you knew Edward's first wife?" Bella asked, one afternoon as she sat in the kitchen having a coffee and Angela cleaned around her

"No," Angela said, shaking her head. "No, she was gone before I started."

"When you say gone you mean died, right?" Bella clarified.

Angela pursed her lips. "Now, I do not gossip," she said, which was how she often began when she was about to relay some gossip, "and I do not like to get involved in anybody's personal life. I do not ask those questions. But, I hear what I hear. And yes, Mr Cullen's first wife, she passed away. When Alice was only a little girl, maybe five. Maybe six. Too young to lose a mother."

"That is," Bella said quietly, thinking of her own. "Was she sick? Was it cancer?"

Angela shook her head. "No, it was a car accident. Very bad, very horrible. Mr Cullen, when I started working for him, he was very, very upset. He was a very sad man, and Alice, she was just old enough to understand what had happened. I did not know what to do for her. It is lucky Mrs Esme was there for them."

Bella tried to put a timeframe into her head. "So... How long after that did Edward meet Tanya?"

"Mr Cullen was alone for too long," Angela replied. "I am not sure exactly when he met Tanya. But they were married six years ago. They had their wedding anniversary just before you started. I remember their wedding, such a beautiful day."

"You were invited?" Bella asked, surprised.

"Of course," Angela said. "Mr Cullen, he was so happy. He invited everyone! Even my husband, although they had never even met. And Ms Tanya, well, she was the most lovely bride. Her picture was in many newspapers afterwards."

"And she didn't mind you being there?"

"She was so busy, I do not think she even knew. There were many guests. Hundreds. Now at my wedding, I only had six people. My mother and father, and my Ben's mother and father, and his brother was his best man and my sister was my maid of honour. It was very small. I think it was very beautiful, but certainly not beautiful enough to be in the newspapers!"

Bella sighed glumly. "I think Tanya would rather wear last season's Chanel than let me have lunch with her, let alone let me go to her wedding."

Angela raised an eyebrow. "You are still worried that Ms Tanya does not like you?"

"No," Bella said. "I've pretty much accepted that she's never going to be all warm and fuzzy with me." She frowned, then said, "I guess I just don't get why they hired me at all, if neither of them like me."

"Ah," Angela said. "You still think Mr Cullen does not like you."

"Well it's kinda hard not to think that," Bella said drily. "You saw the other day - he hates me even being in this house. He can't wait for me to get out of it." She paused, then said, "my housemate Emmett, you know the one who works for Edward's company? The one who reccommended me for the job? Well he said that maybe Edward resents me being here, because he didn't want Tanya to go back to work."

"Now," Angela began, "you know I do not -"

"Gossip - yeah, I know."

Angela frowned at her, but continued. "Your friend, he may be right. Mr Cullen, he very much wanted Ms Tanya to stay home -"

"What, he doesn't think a woman belongs in the workplace? He thinks a woman should stay at home with the kids?"

"That is not what I said," Angela said. "That is not what he thinks. But maybe he wants his children to be raised by a parent -"

"So why doesn't he quit his job and stay home and look after them?" Bella demanded.

"I think," Angela said, "if Mr Cullen did not have so many responsibilities, he would do that. But he cannot. He is a very important man, he has a very important job. He likes his job very much -"

"More than he likes his wife and kids?"

Angela frowned at her again. "You have judged Mr Cullen wrongly," she said. "You are biased. You met him when he was maybe tired, maybe in a bad temper. It is not a crime to be in a bad temper, Bella."

"I know that," Bella mumbled, feeling slightly chastened.

"You are in a bad temper now, yes? And I do not judge you. Because I know that you are not always in a bad temper. And that you have a reason for being a in a bad temper, and that it has nothing to do with me. So I will remember how you are normally in such a good temper, and I will think of you just the same as I always do."

Bella kind of wished Angela wouldn't make such a good point.

"Mr Cullen," Angela continued, "he was the one to say to hire you. Ms Tanya, she wanted someone else. An older lady, with grown up children of her own. But Mr Cullen said you. I think, maybe he thinks because you are young, that you would be better. Maybe that you will be a friend to Alice."

"Oh great," Bella groaned. "He hired me, against his wife's wishes, because he thought I would get along with Alice, and it turns out she hates me. Well. I'll be getting fired any day now."

"You are very silly sometimes, Bella," Angela said, collecting her empty coffee cup and loading ir into the dishwasher. "You make these silly stories in your head. You will not be fired. And Alice, she does not hate you. You give her time, you will see." She began to shoo Bella out of the kitchen, as she always did at the this time of the day. "Now, I must clean. And you must do your job. After all, that is why we are here, yes?"


	5. Chapter 5

**The Help**

* * *

**5.**

Edward came home early the next Monday, too, arriving not long after Bella had returned from picking Alice up from swim practice. She was expecting him this time, though, because he'd called around lunch time to let her know.

"I didn't want to startle you, like I did last time," he told her on the phone.

Bella wasn't sure if he was being considerate, or whether this was some veiled warning so she could have the place clean.

When he arrived he was wearing his gym clothes again, the same blue sweatpants, this time worn with a black t-shirt. He had a nice body. All ropy arm muscles, broad shoulders and narrow waist. She wondered if he was one of those obsessive compulsive types about exercise, and decided it probably wouldn't be out of character for him. After all, he seemed pretty image conscious. Always well dressed, with his perfect house and luxury car and well-dressed children and gorgeous wife. Like she'd told Emmett that night in the bar, she knew his type. And because there was no chance she could ever be attracted to anyone like him, she didn't feel guilty at all about checking out his arse as he leaned down to grab the carton of milk from the bottom of the fridge.

_Nice_.

For a minute she thought he was going to drink the milk straight from the bottle - a habit Emmett also had, which drove her insane. But at the last moment he reached for a cup from the mug tree by the microwave.

One redeeming quality so far, Bella decided, a little cynically.

She was slicing carrot sticks, focussing on making them all the same lengths and widths, a hangover from her last nannying job. The little boy she'd cared for, Alistair, had been OCD about the food he ate, and by making everything the exact same size Bella had struggled less to get him to actually eat.

"That looks great," Edward said, indicating the bowl of dip and the celery sticks she'd cut earlier. She'd curled the ends of them by dunking them in ice water, because Elizabeth had taken a liking to them done that way. She claimed it made them look like people, and took great delight in biting their "heads" off, which Bella tried not to see as a worrying sign. "Any chance you can make me some, too? I'm starving."

"Sure."

He finished his drink in two long swallows, left the cup in the sink, then said, "so how are you finding things?"

Bella glanced up, just to be sure he was speaking to her - not that there was anyone else in the room. But he could have been on his phone, she supposed. He wasn't, though, he was still watching her.

"Everything's going really well, thanks," Bella replied politely.

"I'm glad to hear that," he said easily. "Elizabeth is enraptured with you. As far as she's concerned you're pretty much the be all and end all."

Bella was genuinely pleased by this. "She's been a pleasure to take care of," she told him honestly.

Then he cleared his throat. "Uh, and Alice," he began. "I know she can be a bit of a tough nut to crack. I really hope she hasn't caused you any offence."

"Oh no, she's fine," Bella said quickly. "Um, I'm sure that when she adjusts we'll be great friends." She winced, realising how fake that sounded, and tried again. "Seriously, it's all fine. I was fourteen once. It's not a fun age for anybody."

Edward was rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "I can't even imagine what's going through her head half the time," he said, almost to himself.

"Trust me," Bella said. "You really don't want to know."

For a moment, Edward looked alarmed. Then his face relaxed into a small smile. It made the corners of his eyes crinkle, and he looked like almost an entirely different person. Like the younger, calmer brother of the man she'd met previously. "You're probably right. I struggle enough as it is letting her out of my sight. She thinks I'm being over-protective. I can't help it, though."

"My Dad was the same," Bella told him.

"Really?"

"Yeah." she finished slicing the last carrot, and began arranging them around the dip. "My curfew was seven o'clock until I turned eighteen."

"Wow. That's, uh…"

"Uh-huh. Insane? I can't count the amount of times I nearly broke my neck while sneaking out my bedroom window."

He chuckled. "So," he said, "are you saying I should be getting bars for Alice's window?"

"Nah. But maybe grease the rain pipes a little."

"Noted."

Bella finished arranging the last of the vegetables on the plate and stood back. "Done." She glanced up. "Um, so Elizabeth is just in the family room playing. If you want I'll give her some of this and then I can head off…"

"Actually," Edward said, "would you mind sticking around until your normal time? I'm going to head upstairs and spend a bit of time with Alice. If you could keep an eye on Elizabeth it would be one less thing for me to worry about."

"Of course," Bella replied, trying to cover her surprise. "That's not a problem. I'd be happy to."

"Great." Edward shot her a smile. "That's a big help, thank you Isabella." He headed towards the door to the hallway, grabbing his gym bag as he did. He paused just by the door and called back over his shoulder, "I probably haven't told you yet, but you're doing a great job. My wife and I are really pleased with how everything is going."

Bella hid her shock, smiled and thanked him, then watched him disappear up the hallway, entirely confused.

.

On Tuesday nights Emmett played indoor soccer then went out for drinks with his team mates, and Bella walked around their apartment in her underwear and ate cheerios from the box. It was a cherished routine. Tonight, however, she discovered they were out of cheerios and had to make do with cheese. It wasn't quite the same, and after about half an hour she felt a little out of sorts. She almost wished Emmett was there to keep her company. To cheer herself up she put on an old Elton John cd into the rickety cd player she'd brought with her from Forks, and danced around, using what was left of the block of cheese as a microphone.

After two equally disastrous renditions of "Sacrifice" she figured she'd tortured the neighbours enough, so after switching the cd off she settled down on the couch with her laptop.

Sometimes she liked to look at her google search history and wonder just what the heck an archaeologist from the future would deduce from it. Her most recent history included "Matt Smith topless", "diagram of throat," "Courtney Robertson from The Bachelor controversy," "Daniel Radcliffe's penis," "The Godfather quotes," and "Grumpy Cat." And buried between all of them was "Edward Cullen."

He'd been nice to her yesterday. Downright pleasant, in fact. Polite and friendly and all those things that normal people normally were around people they didn't know all that well yet.

Normal - that was the word she'd been looking for. He'd been normal.

The thing was - was that normal? For him to be polite and friendly and pleasant? To speak to her without bite in his voice and anger on his face?

She'd been thrown yesterday. Uncomfortable, although she really shouldn't have been. After all, he'd been easy enough to talk to. But his abrupt change in behaviour reminded her too much of Jake, and how he could be just so awful, and then only minutes later able to act as though it hadn't happened. Ever since then, that sort of capacity for such abrupt mood swings had always made her wary.

She didn't know exactly how google was going to help, but she selected his name from the drop down list and clicked search.

As it had the first time, articles began to pop up immediately. The first three were from one of the Denali Media corp newspapers, and were recent - within the last three months. Mainly about a new commercial contract. Underneath those were the image results - a handful of thumbprint sized photos of him, including two of him in a tux. Bella eyed these with interest - she certainly wasn't going to be contesting Emmett for his position as President of the Edward Cullen Fan Club - but the guy certainly scrubbed up well. She was idly wondering whether she should search for topless pictures of him when her phone started vibrating on the cushion beside her.

The name "Chief Swan" was flashing on the screen, and for a moment Bella contemplated not answering it. They hadn't spoken since their last disastrous phone conversation and Bella was reluctant to have a repeat of it. But she knew from experience ignoring his calls only made things worse so she reluctantly clicked "answer."

"Hi Dad."

"Bella?"

He did this every time, like someone else was going to answer her phone saying "hi Dad."

"Yeah, it's me. How are you?"

"Good, fine. Busy. Three road accidents this week, I've had to drive to the coroners twice today. Three hour round trip each time."

"Oh. That's no good."

"Damn right it's no good. Now I've got paperwork coming out my ears. I had to leave Henderson here alone all day and he's gone and lost the file on the Dawson domestic dispute…"

Bella listened for a few moments as her father relayed all of his current grievances, ending in how his new neighbour's dog barked incessantly and wasn't helping with his already high blood pressure.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry to hear all that, Dad," Bella said, when he'd finally finished.

"Hmph. Well, it's not all bad. Sue Clearwater was over for dinner last night. She's been a few times, since Harry's been gone."

"Is that so?" Bella said, slightly teasingly.

"Don't start that nonsense," her father said sternly. "Anyway, I'm only telling you because she had some new about Jacob. He's starting his own business, doing lawns and landscaping all around the Peninsula. She heard from Billy that he's building up quite a name for himself, making quite a good trade."

Bella's heart had sunk in her chest the moment her father had said Jake's name. She should have known that's what he would be calling about. It was the main reason he ever called her - to make not-so-subtle hints at what she was missing out on, to tell her how much of a mistake she'd made when she'd left Forks and left Jake behind.

Bella had given up trying to tell her father the truth, trying to make him see the reality. Somehow he always ended up throwing it back in her face, always tried to make her feel as though she were the one to blame. She didn't need him trying to manipulate her into feeling guilty, Jake had done enough of that himself.

"Well," she said tightly, after a beat, "I'm glad for him."

"He asked about you, too," her father continued. "When I was down at the Res the other day. Asked how you were going at college. Told me how much he misses you, how he wished you'd come home already -"

"Dad."

"What?"

"Just - look, just leave it, okay?"

Her father's voice sounded irritated. "Give the guy a break, Bella."

Bella nearly snorted - was that meant to be some incredibly not funny, distasteful pun? Instead of firing back she let the comment slide, hoping her father hadn't meant anything more by it. She couldn't handle the inevitable argument and she didn't want to dredge up bad memories.

"Anyway," he continued, "I told him you were doing well at school -"

"I'm not at school at the moment, Dad," she interrupted him, impatient.

"What?"

"You know this - I told you the last time we spoke. I've taken a year off, I need some time to figure out if I've taken the right major -"

"You don't mean to say you actually went through with that? Jesus Christ, Bella - after the fuss you kicked up, taking off and insisting college was the right choice - I knew it, I tried to tell you. I don't know why the hell you didn't just stay here. What the hell are you doing, Bella?"

"I'm trying to make life decisions that are good for me," Bella said tersely, pointedly.

"Well you're screwing them up, I'll tell you that now. If you'd stayed here you'd be settled, you'd be married, Jacob is earning a good wage, he'd be able to take care of you just fine -"

"I'm taking care of myself," Bella said shortly. "I have a job, I'm earning a decent amount of money -"

"When the hell did you get a job?" Her father demanded. "Bella, I don't understand you at all, you went off to Seattle for college, not to work - if you wanted to work you could've got a job here in Forks, they're hiring at the plant again, looking for a girl for the office -"

"I've had a job for nearly two months now," Bella interrupted him, the last of her patience rapidly slipping away. "Since the last time I called you, remember when I told you I couldn't keep the job at the bookstore and I was looking for work but I might need a small loan in the mean time to help me stay afloat?"

Her father ignored her attempt at making him feel guilty. "And what is this job? It's not in a bar is it?"

"No, it's as a nanny for a very nice family. A very well known family, actually. The husband owns an architect firm and the wife is in media. They have two daughters and they both absolutely love me."

Okay, so she was stretching the truth here. But she couldn't help it, her father was making her blood pressure rise. She couldn't deal with him when he was like this, he just never saw reason.

"Hmph," he said. "I don't know how you think you're going to support yourself on a baby sitter's wage, Bella. And since when have you been interested in child care? You know there's a perfectly good child care centre in Port Angeles you could have looked for work at, then you would have been close to home -"

"Forks is not my home, Dad, I don't want to come back, okay?"

Her father went quiet after her outburst.

She waited a moment, then two and then three, trying to force herself not to feel guilty. It was the same thing her mother had told him, all those years ago.

When she couldn't take the silence any longer she sighed and gave in. "I'm sorry, it's just that I'm making a life for myself here in Seattle. I have a really great apartment and I have really great friends, and the job is good and - this is the life I want to live, Dad. I just wish you could understand that."

"Well, I can't. I just don't understand why you left in the first place. No one else took off the way you did, straight out of high school. No one else thought they had to go out and travel the world and live in a big city to be happy. I don't know where you got those ideas from. You had so much going for you here, you had Jacob -"

Bella cut him off because she couldn't do this anymore.

"I have to go, Dad," she said tightly. "There's someone at the door, I have to answer it."

"You know, Jacob won't wait around for you forever, Bella. He's a good man, he'll find someone else and then what will you have? -"

"I've really got to go. Bye, Dad."

She cut him off mid-protest, and threw her phone at the other end of the couch. She wanted to scream with frustration. Angry tears prickled at the corners of her eyes but she was determined not to give in to them. She wasn't going to let him win, not now, not after she'd come this far.

Of course, Murphy's Law being what it was, it turned out there really was someone at her door. Someone with a key, someone who was barging through it right then. Someone who let out a very un-masculine shriek when he saw Bella sitting there holding a block of cheese in one hand and her laptop in the other, wearing only her underwear.

"What are you doing home!" She shrieked, jumping to her feet.

Emmett raised his hand to cover his eyes. "Jesus!" He exclaimed, his voice comically high pitched. "What the hell are you doing?"

"What the hell does it look like I'm doing?" Bella demanded. "It's Tuesday! You're meant to be at indoor soccer! I'm hanging around in my underwear!"

"Why the hell didn't you warn me!" Emmett yelled, sounding badly startled. "Why didn't you put a sock on the door or something?"

"Why the hell didn't you tell me you were coming home early?" Bella returned. "What are you even doing here, you're not meant to home for at least two hours! God, you could have caught me in the middle of - of watching porn or something!

Emmett peeked through his fingers, then quickly closed them again. "Don't!" He yelped. "Don't say that! Not when you're holding cheese! And indoor soccer was cancelled, so we went straight to the bar and then I met Lucy here but the bar closed early because of a booking so I thought I'd invite Lucy back for a drink here and -"

A small, pretty blonde girl peeked out from where she'd been hidden behind Emmett's broad back. She waved at Bella meekly. "Hi, I'm Lucy."

Bella blinked at her, then said to Emmett, dismayed, "The bar was closed for a booking? Oh no - this is not a good sign. Once they started hiring themselves out for exclusive functions -"

"Bella!" Emmett exclaimed. "Seriously - seriously, I can't stand here and have this conversation with you while you're half naked. Put some clothes on for Christ's sake!"

"Emmett," Bella said, putting her laptop down and closing it, and dropping the block of cheese on to the sofa next to it, "you are a big prude. I don't know why we're friends sometimes. It's fine for you to go from the shower to your bedroom naked, but I can't even stand here in my own living room without you getting aroused -"

"I'm not aroused!" Emmett shrieked, his voice rising about ten octaves. "I'm the exact opposite!"

Bella winked at Lucy, who looked like she was tempted to sneak out while Emmett's eyes were covered. "Nice to meet you, Lucy," she said. "And don't worry, I'm sure they have tablets for Emmett's, uh, little problem -"

"Oh my God Bella, just get out before I kill you."

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving!"

Bella shut her bedroom door behind her with a soft click, grinning to herself, her frustration completely melted away.

.

.

.

Tanya was late home again on Thursday. She'd been late every night that week so far. When Edward came home, just after seven thirty, Bella was in the kitchen preparing dinner for the girls.

"My wife isn't home yet?" He asked, as he dropped his briefcase on the bench.

"She called just before," Bella replied, turning away from the stove, "she said she wasn't sure what time she would be home. I thought I would start on dinner, seeing it was getting kind of late…"

She was expecting him to be irritated, but Edward just looked resigned. "Thank you," he said. Then asked, "where are the girls?"

Bella nodded towards the family room. "Watching a dvd together," she said. Edward disappeared through it, and Bella heard the murmur of their voices for a while. She continued stirring the bolognaise sauce, then got started on the noodles. When she turned back around, Edward was standing in the doorway. He was watching her, but at the same time there was a distant look on his face, like he wasn't seeing her at all. When she caught his eyes he blinked, then pulled his features into a tired looking smile.

"Sorry," he said. "Miles away." He nodded towards the oven. "That smells great. What is it?"

"Just spag bol," Bella said. "Sorry, I'm not the world's most creative cook. We don't do much cooking at home. Unless you count re-heating pizza."

Edward slid into one of the seats at the dining table. He looked tired. "We?" He said.

"Yeah - Emmett and I."

"Ah, yes, Emmett," Edward said with a nod. "I forget that you know him. Great guy." Then he asked, "have you two been together long?"

Bella snorted, then quickly tried to cover it. "Sorry," she said. "It's just - we're not together. I'd rather gouge my eyes out with rusty spoons."

Edward looked alarmed. "Right," he said.

"Um," Bella said, embarrassed. "Of course, not literally…" She cleared her throat. "He's my best friend, and even if he wasn't, he is definitely not my type," she clarified.

"I see."

Bella tried to busy herself with stirring the sauce, but could feel Edward's eyes on her. She took a peek out of the corner of her eye, and saw him watching her with an expression of amusement on her face.

"So," he said after a moment, "how long have you and Emmett been friends, then?"

"Two years," Bella replied promptly. "He was the first person I met in Seattle. First apartment I went to look at."

"Fate," Edward mused.

"Um, cheap rent, actually."

Edward smiled. "And before Seattle?" He asked. "What did you do?"

"Well… I travelled around Europe for nearly a year after I finished working with the Bowens. And before that was Forks." She hesitated, then added, "um, that's the town I grew up in. Not the utensil. I don't have a fixation about cutlery."

The corners of Edward's lips twitched, like he was trying not to smile. "I see," he said. "Forks," he repeated. "Is that in Washington? I don't think I know it."

"Not many people do," Bella replied. "Well, apart from loggers, and truck drivers, but I suppose you don't know a lot of them. It's a logging town," she explained. "Way west, about ten hours away from anywhere. On the other side of the Ranges. Um, it's pretty much a hole. Like, there's nothing there. I don't recommend adding it to the itinerary of your next holiday. Unless you're into logging, in which case…"

"I'll make a note of that."

There was a pause, and then Edward said, "This is not too different from your last job, is it?"

"Working in the book store?" Bella turned away from the noodles to look at him, confused. "Um, well it's pretty different, really…"

"Oh, no - I meant your last job as a nanny."

"Oh, that. Sorry." She turned back to the stove. "Having a blonde day."

He watched her with some amusement. "It sounds like you got to see a lot of Europe," he continued after a moment.

"I did," Bella said. "The Bowens travelled to Spain and France in the school holidays, they had holiday places there. And then after I finished with them, I travelled all around Europe for nearly a year."

"I have to admit to some jealousy."

Bella glanced up.

"I've always wanted to see Europe," Edward explained, sounding almost wistful.

"You've never been?"

Edward shook his head. "No."

Bella was surprised and asked, "Why not?" Before realising the question was really rather personal. She expected Edward to tell her it was none of her business, but to her surprise he propped his elbows up on the table and answered her.

"We never had the money," he said. "And then when we had the money, we didn't have the time. Alice was too young to travel, and I was working so hard. It was something I kept putting off. And then… well, it was too late."

With a start, Bella realised he was talking about his first wife. She didn't know what to say - should she offer her condolences? But that would be giving away the fact that she knew about his first wife, and because he hadn't told her himself it felt almost like a violation. Besides, hadn't Tanya emphasised how they were a private family?

Before she had a chance to say anything, however, Edward continued. "Tanya doesn't like Europe, otherwise I'd go now," he said. "Take a few months off and take the girls, see the world. I'm well overdue for a holiday…"

"I can't imagine how anyone could not like Europe," Bella said, genuinely baffled. "It's so diverse - there's something for everybody."

"I'm trying to convince her into France, at least," Edward said.

"Yes!" Bella exclaimed. "Everyone should see Paris. It was my favourite. Actually, no - Venice was. Actually, Prague. Oh, but you know what, Amsterdam was incredible -"

"Spoilt for choice?"

"Absolutely."

"It must have been a struggle to come back home after seeing so many amazing places. What made you return?"

"Um, money mostly," Bella said honestly. "I ran out of it. I did some work while I was travelling, mainly cash in hand stuff. I pulled my fair share of steins in Berlin. But the budget only stretched so far. Besides, I had college to come back to."

"So you came back to rainy old Washington. Hmmm. What made you choose UDub? After all that travelling you weren't inclined to see another new place and go to college interstate? Or were you homesick?"

Bella laughed a little bitterly. "No," she said. "Hardly. It was just that UDub was the first college to offer me a place once I got back."

Edward cocked one eyebrow at this. "Sounds like you were eager to get away. Not much excitement for you back in Forks?"

"Yeah," Bella muttered. "Something like that."

"You made a good choice, though," Edward said, and for a moment Bella thought he'd read her mind, and that he was referring to Jake. But then he went on to say, "UDub is my alma mater."

"Oh yeah, I know. I mean, I saw. On that sweatshirt you were wearing the other day."

Edward asked her a little more about college, and her classes, then told her a little about his time there. Like her, he'd lived off campus. He didn't specify, but Bella knew it must have been with his wife and Alice, who would have only been a baby. He told her an amusing story about one of his professors who used to browse ebay during exams, completely unaware that his laptop was still connected to the big screen, so they could all see his searches for tLady Gaga memorabilia and bulk orders of sequins.

"One Friday a bunch of guys from the class went to every gay bar in Seattle," Edward said, "adamant that they would see him somewhere performing."

"So he was a cross dresser?"

"Who was a cross dresser?"

Bella jumped, and saw that Edward, too, was visibly startled at his wife's sudden appearance in the room. She had dropped her handbag on the bench and was now heading over to Edward; while Bella watched she leant over and brushed his cheek with a kiss. "Sorry I'm late," she murmured, "hellish day. Now, who's this cross dresser? Not someone we know, I hope."

"I was just telling Isabella about one of my old college professors -"

"Oh," Tanya said, glancing over at Bella as though she'd only just noticed her in the room. "Isabella, you're still here."

"She's making something that smells frankly mouth watering for the girls' dinner," Edward said, flashing Bella a quick smile. "And I'm hoping she's made a little extra."

"There's plenty," Bella assured him, then said to Tanya, "so if you're hungry, too -"

Tanya cut her off before she could even finish. "I'm a vegetarian." She paused, then added, "I had thought you would be aware of that after two months with us."

Bella was stung. Instinctively she glanced at Edward, and saw a frown cross his features.

"She's the nanny, not our cook, Tan," he said.

Tanya turned her cool eyes towards him. "Regardless," she said. Then said to Bella, "I can finish up here. Thank you."

Bella hesitated, was going to tell her that she was happy to stay the remaining five minutes it was going to take to finish, but changed her mind.

_Fuck her_, she thought, as she headed into the living room to bid both girls farewell. Tanya could take her attitude and her vegetarianism and shove it.

.

.

.

"Defrosting anything in particular?"

Bella jumped, startled, and emerged from behind the open freezer door, tub of ice cream in her hand, spoon in her mouth, and tried not to look guilty. "Jeez," she said, "what's with people sneaking up on me lately? Is this scare the shit out of Bella month or something?"

Emmett pushed past her into the kitchen, knocking her aside playfully, and dumped his wallet and keys down on the bench. Reaching for a spoon from the sink, he indicated for Bella to pass him the ice cream.

"No," she said sharply. "There's only a tiny bit left and I'm having all of it. No soup for you."

"Fine," Emmett said, "eat it all and get fat. Then let's see you try and get laid."

"I'm never getting fat," Bella said decisively. "And even if I did, I would so still get laid."

Emmett scoffed. "Oh yeah, by that desperate Newton guy maybe. Is he still texting you?"

"All the time," Bella said gloomily. "I've had to un-friend him on Facebook. He kept commenting on all my statuses and photos and liking all the same pages I'd liked. It was creepy."

Emmett smirked. "So, what's with the ice cream? Bad day?"

Bella frowned. "Not really," she said. "I mean, it was okay. I just…" She sighed, then remembered something and straightened up. "Actually, it was a bad day. I went down to the bar just before and it's happened. It's completely overrun. We can't go back. They were everywhere."

Emmett frowned at her. "Who?" He said.

"Popular people," Bella said glumly. "It was full of them. The after work business crowd. College kids. A group of people from Oregon on a work trip. They even had the football on the tv. Remember how they used to show re-runs of I Love Lucy? Yeah, not anymore. Too weird, apparently. Also you can't use the jukebox. Well, you can. But they've put in all this new music. Like, current music. Top 40 stuff. Oh, and you know that weird moose head they had in the bathroom? Gone. No idea where. They've got a scented candle in there now instead."

Emmett grinned. "Bella, you're such a fucking hipster."

Bella glared at him. "Fuck off I am."

"You are. Especially when you wear those glasses. I mean, you wear flannel shirts for crying out loud. With hiking boots. Next thing you know you'll be calling the rest of us people mainstream, and only watching Danish films -"

"Screw you. I need to wear these glasses to see, thank you very much. Notice how mine have lenses in them? And what's wrong with flannels and hiking boots? I grew up in a logging town, it was all they sold in the stores. And finally I saw one Danish film, and it was by accident. I thought it was the new Quentin Tarantino movie. It took me nearly forty five minutes to realise I was in the wrong theatre, and by then I couldn't walk out, people would have stared at me."

"So that's why you've guzzled an entire tub of ice cream? Because we have to find a new bar?"

Bella sniffed. "Can I just wallow in self pity without all the questions?"

"No, because that's annoying as all fuck."

Bella sighed. "Yeah, you're right."

"Soon, young grasshopper, you will learn that I am always right."

"Soon you'll get a kick in the nuts."

Emmett grabbed his crotch protectively. "Don't even joke about that. They can hear you, you know. You'll frighten them."

Bella stared at him. "Emmett, you're the biggest weirdo I've ever met in my entire life."

"Takes one to know one."

Bella ignored the jibe, threw the empty ice cream container in the bin and the spoon in the sink, then leaned up against the bench with a sigh. "Okay," she said, "don't get me wrong. I like the new job. I do. I really like Elizabeth, she's the cutest thing I've ever met, and seriously, so easy to look after. Do you know I haven't seen her cry or throw a tantrum once? She's like a miracle toddler."

"But?"

"But… the rest of them are doing my head in."

"Operation make Tanya Denali your best friend not working?"

"That's not what I was trying to do!" Bella said defensively. Then frowned. "Okay, maybe a little. Like, I just want her to like me. Is that too much to ask? I'll give up on the idea of us being friends. Which is probably a good thing, because I don't think I could ever genuinely be friends with someone who cares so much about things like people's stations in life. But, like, can't she be nice to me at least? It's like she switches everything off when she talks to me, like she can't bear for me to know that she's a real person with real problems that maybe I can relate to."

Emmett frowned. "I've met her a couple of times when she's come into the office," he said. "She seemed okay to me. Hot," he added. "Slamming body. I would have married her, too, if I were him."

"Yeah, because she's great arm candy," Bella said, a little cynically. "I bet that's why he married her."

Emmett rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you still think Edward Cullen is an asshole. I told you - he was probably having a bad day. Not everything is about you, you know."

"Excuse me, I'm well aware of that," Bella said, sullenly kicking the base of the cupboards.

Emmett raise one sceptical eyebrow. Bella gave him the finger.

"But you still don't like him, right?" Emmett said.

"No, I don't," Bella said, defiantly.

Emmett rolled his eyes. "Right. And why, exactly?"

"Because he hasn't even acknowledged how rude he was to me! No apology or anything, he's all just acting like it never happened, and expecting me to play along and be all happy that he's decided to grace me with his charming side, and being all chummy with me and asking questions about college and Europe and making jokes and telling me about architecture and -" She broke off because Emmett was staring at her. "What?" She demanded.

"You can't admit it, can you?"

"Admit what?"

Emmett grinned at her. "That you were wrong."

"That's not what this is about!" Bella insisted.

"It totally is. You hate being wrong. And you are - you can't admit that Edward Cullen is a nice guy. You can't admit that you like him, because your precious feelings got a little hurt. So you're determined to not like him, and the more you realise you can't not like him the more it's going to piss you off -"

"Oh my God, stop trying to psycho analyse me, you freak."

"Just admit you were wrong."

"I wasn't!"

"You were! He's a nice guy. You can't help but like him. Admit it."

"Never!"

Emmett shook his head in mock sadness. "Your stubbornness will be your downfall, young grasshopper."


	6. Chapter 6

**The Help**

* * *

**6.**

"Emmett, it's my duty as your friend and stand-in girlfriend to tell you that that is the ugliest effing sweater I've ever seen you wear. I mean, it's a grandpa cardigan basically. The only thing that could make it uglier is if you put smoking patches on the arms."

Emmett plucked at his sweater defensively. "It's not ugly, it's comfortable. Besides, I don't give a shit how I look."

"Yeah? That's why you spent twenty minutes blow drying your hair before we left?"

Emmett took a long drink, frowning at Bella over the rim of his glass. When he put it down, he wiped the back of his mouth and said, "Shame you didn't do yours. Is just rolled out of bed the latest hipster look or something?"

Bella glared half-heartedly. "I fucking hate it when you call me that, and you know it," she said distractedly. She was more interested in checking out her surroundings. They were at a new bar, at Bella's insistence. This one was a little further from their apartment, which meant navigating a new drunken stagger home.

But apart from that it suited their purposes just fine: in that it served drinks of an alcoholic nature, and was apparently invisible to 99% of the people on the street outside. Like The Leaky Cauldron, Bella had thought to herself with uncontained glee when she'd first walked in. It was like everyone else's eyes slid right past it. It was a little hole in the wall joint that Bella had passed by a number of times but never once walked inside because of the bikes she often saw chained up outside. She didn't believe in bike riding in a city as constantly wet as Seattle. Bike riders were a danger to themselves and everyone else. She'd automatically assumed the place would be overrun with them, but to her pleasant surprise she'd been proven wrong. After seeing the dark interior, the world war two memorabilia on the walls and the ripped old vinyl couches she'd fallen instantly in love. It was the new Riley's, before Riley's gave in to societal pressure and became normal.

"You so are, though, and the more you deny it the truer it is. Look at you - you're wearing shorts with penguins on them."

Bella glanced down absently at her outfit. "What's wrong with penguins?"

"It's not about the penguins per se, it's about your intentions in wearing them."

"What? Because they're cute and awesome?"

"No, because they're kinda weird and also kinda daggy, and you're wearing them with tights and boots and - well, basically the whole oufit just screams 'look at me, I'm wearing shorts even though it's still freezing outside at night, aren't I so different, aren't I defying society's expectations of what a girl should wear'."

Bella considered that a moment, then said, "Yeah, but I'm wearing them ironically."

"Do you even know what the word ironic means?

"Not really. But does anyone?"

"You make a good point." Emmett kept glancing at the door, unable to hide his eager anticipation. Lucy was meant to be joining them at any moment. Bella hadn't seen her since the night she and Emmett had walked in on her in all of her underwear and cheese glory, three weeks ago, but she knew Emmett had seen her a number of times since. He'd been noticeably absent on a number of evenings now, rolling up the next morning in the same clothes he'd been wearing the day before and a look on his face like the cat that got the canary.

"All I know," Bella continued, quickly eyeing a group of guys at the table over by windows and just as quickly dismissing them when she saw they were all wearing popped collars, "is that being surrounded by ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife is not ironic. That's just unlucky."

"Also, who is ever surrounded by ten thousand spoons? What the hell?"

"Maybe someone who works in a spoon factory?"

Lucy arrived then, and from that point onward Bella was officially relegated to third wheel.

Executive Third Wheel, she told herself, in an attempt to cheer herself up. Chief Executive Third Wheel. Or perhaps, President in Charge of Third Wheel Operations. Whatever looked fancier on her resume.

Lucy and Emmett were in that nauseating stage in their relationship where they couldn't stop touching and kissing each other. It was almost enough to put Bella off her beer. It was good beer, however, imported from Spain and had cost her a small fortune, so she was determined to enjoy it. It was a struggle, though. When she couldn't handle Emmett and Lucy anymore she went up to the bar and attempted to befriend the girl who worked behind it, in the hopes of getting discount drinks in the future. But the girl was reading Proust, and looked so irritated at being interrupted that Bella feared for her safety and backed slowly away, as if from a rabid dog.

Back at their table, Emmett and Lucy were making out. Giving up on the evening as a bad job, Bella snuck back to collect her handbag, then headed out into the crisp night air. Winter was finally giving way to spring, which meant that it was twice as wet, but the air in between the downpours was slightly warmer. Bella bundled herself into her favourite red duffle coat, and headed back to the apartment with her head bent against the rain, grumbling internally about how anti social Emmett had been acting ever since he'd started dating Lucy.

It was the first time, since the two had been living together, that one of them had been involved in an actual relationship, and as far as Bella was concerned it threw everything out of whack. Some nights Emmett didn't come home at all, leaving Bella to watch Game of Thrones alone, which just wasn't the same when she didn't have someone to high five every time boobs came on screen.

Bella wasn't jealous of Lucy. Believe it or not, she'd never been able to see Emmett in any other way than as the brother she'd never had and never really wanted, either. She still loved him to death, though. And she was a classic only child in that she wasn't accustomed to sharing. Not that she resented Lucy or anything - she hardly knew the girl, and that would be unfair. But if she was honest, she resented the situation, and the fact that it felt like her best friend had suddenly been yanked away from her, leaving her with no one.

Of course, it wasn't like Emmett was her only friend. It's just that he was hands down her favourite. But she had others, even if they weren't quite the same.

She could have hung out with Rachel and Rebecca, the two twin girls who'd been in her Art History course in her freshman year, that she'd befriended because they, too, were from a small town. Port Angeles, actually, which was not too far away from Forks. But sometimes hanging out with Rachel and Rebecca, lovely as they were, felt a little too close to home. Literally. Despite being such a large area, the Olympic Peninsula could be ridiculously small sometimes. Rachel and Rebecca knew half the same people she knew, including Emily and Leah and Sam, though thankfully not Jake, and although they knew Bella didn't like to talk about that part of her life it still sometimes hung in the air between them.

Both were great girls, and Bella thoroughly enjoyed their company. But she didn't feel the same sort of level of comfort around them that she did around Emmett. With Emmett she never had to worry about her lack of brain filter, never had to worry that he thought she was unhinged, because he understood her and who she was and exactly why. She never had to censor herself around Emmett.

She'd spent most of her youth censoring herself. Keeping her mouth firmly closed so she wouldn't argue with her father. Watching every single word that escaped her lips in Jake's presence - first because she'd been so desperate to impress him, then because she'd been so desperate to keep him interested. And then finally because she'd been so desperate not to incite him. And then she'd had to watch what she'd said and how she'd acted around her friends, lest they notice something was wrong.

She'd spent so much time pretending like everything was fine, like everything was normal.

Sometimes she thought that was why she had so much trouble filtering her thoughts and herself these days. Like she'd kept it all pent up for so long and now that she was happy and safe and free it was all pouring out of her.

Emmett accepted this. He accepted that she was kooky and weird and often voiced thoughts probably best left unsaid. Sometimes her other friends weren't this accepting. Which meant that when she was hanging out with people like Rachel and Rebecca she often felt like she was holding back. Like she was pretending to be someone she wasn't. Like she was seventeen again.

Bella let herself into the empty apartment, switching the television on straight away just to fill the space with noise. She didn't expect to see Emmett and Lucy back there tonight, it was just her and a pint of ice cream again. Which was a little depressing. When she thought about it, this was not how she'd expected her life at twenty two to be at all.

"This," she told her ice cream a little glumly, "is not good."

.

.

.

Bella knew she was becoming comfortable around Edward Cullen when she found her mouth running away from her when he was around. And the first time it happened could have been an absolute epic disaster.

It was a Monday afternoon, and with Alice at her friend Charlotte's house and Elizabeth down for her afternoon nap, Bella was taking advantage of the stillness by curling up with a book. She was in the living room at the rear of the house, the one she'd first interviewed with Tanya in. It was the formal living room, and while the sofa wasn't as comfortable as the one in the family room this room had such an amazing aspect over the garden and the lake beyond it - and had the extra benefit of the mid-afternoon sun streaming through the many French windows. Here she was curled up, as content as a cat caught in a sun trap, and close to dropping off to sleep when she heard footsteps in the hallway. When she popped her head up over the back of the sofa, somewhat startled, she was relieved to see it was Edward and not his wife.

"Oh, it's just you," she said.

"It's just me," Edward agreed, with a half smile. "Who were you expecting?"

"Oh, you know, my boyfriend. I invited him over so we could sneak food from the fridge and make out in your bed." Bella blinked, then said, "shit, I did it again. Sorry. I have a filter problem. I mean, I don't even have a boyfriend. And if I did I definitely would not make out with him on your bed, that would be just really freaky -"

She broke off because Edward was laughing. "You," he said after a moment, "are something else. You really are."

"I'm just going to go ahead and take that as compliment."

Edward quirked his left eyebrow. "How could it be otherwise?"

"Oh, you know. Apparently people my age are big on the whole generic thing."

"Nothing worse."

"I agree."

Edward threw himself down on one of the grey-silk wing back chairs, stretching his legs out in front of him with a happy sounding sigh. "I'm beat," he said, scrubbing one of his hands through his hair. "Where are the girls?"

Bella edged into a sitting position, quickly shuffling her book out of view. "Um, Alice is over at Charlotte's. Tanya okayed it this morning. And Elizabeth is upstairs, having a nap. We walked to the park this morning and I think that wore her out. She's having creative differences with her stroller and refused to ride in it, so we walked the whole way there and back."

"Creative differences?"

"Okay, maybe not. But she's being very creative with her excuses as to why she won't ride in it anymore. This morning it was because she's worried there were ghosts in there."

"What sort of ghosts?"

"She hasn't specified. Regular old stroller ghosts, I guess."

"Ah."

"Though, I'm just saying, if I came back as ghost and had a choice of places to haunt, a stroller wouldn't be high up on my list. I think I'd prefer somewhere more traditional. Like a graveyard or an attic."

Edward seemed to be thinking. "I don't know where I'd haunt," he said after a moment. "I don't think there's one specific place. I'd rather haunt people."

"Really?"

"Not in a malicious way," Edward said hastily. "I meant more that I'd want to keep an eye on the people I'd left behind. Make sure they were okay."

"So no wailing and clanging of chains for you?"

"Sorry to disappoint."

Bella rubbed at her nose thoughtfully. "I kind of have to disqualify you," she said, "because that's not really haunting at all. That's more like being a guardian angel. But I like the sentiment behind it."

"Thanks," Edward grinned.

"No worries."

"Good book?" Edward asked, nodding toward the sofa cushion, where the corner of the book Bella had been reading was poking out.

Bella hastily tried to stuff it further beneath the cushion. "Um, not really," she said, then added quickly, "I hope you don't mind that I was reading. I don't want you to think this is what I do all day. Like, I don't lock Elizabeth in her room so I can satisfy my voracious appetite for books on your dime, is what I'm saying."

"Honestly, the thought had never crossed my mind."

"I bet you're thinking about it now, though."

"I'm trying not to."

"Ah, giving me the benefit of the doubt. I like that."

"So what were you reading?"

Bella had been dreading him asking this exact question. Subtly she tried to shift the book further from sight, but before she could Edward had sat up, reached out and grabbed the corner of it before she could stop him.

"Don't -" Bella cried, mortified, as his eyes took in the cover.

Then Edward's cheeks turned about as red as hers felt. "Oh," he said.

Bella would have quite happily thrown herself bodily out the French doors right then.

"It's not mine," she said hastily. "I don't normally read stuff like this, I swear. I mean, you should see my book shelf at home. It has Orwell and Joyce and -"

Edward held his hands up, flashing the cover of Fifty Shades of Grey as he did. "No judgement," he said. "It's not like you're smoking crack. Reading is reading, it all stimulates the brain -" then he cut himself off, his cheeks reddening further. "Um, that was probably the wrong word to use."

Bella buried her face in her hands. "Probably, yes," she said, her voice muffled. "I'm sorry," she said, "I don't think I can ever look you in the eye again."

Edward cleared his throat. "Uh, well that's going to present a few problems."

"I don't care," Bella mumbled, moving to cover her face with a pillow.

"Um. Well, I'm going to head upstairs to shower and then see Elizabeth -"

"That's probably a good idea. I'm going to hide down here and wallow in my shame."

"Right. Uh. Any chance while you're doing that you could make me a snack?"

"I have some oatmeal cookies that Elizabeth and I made yesterday, will those be alright?" Bella asked, her face still buried in the cushion.

"Sounds great."

"Okay. I'll get them ready for you. And some milk. They're better with milk."

.

.

.

"He caught you reading porn?"

"Yes."

"Your boss caught you reading porn. On his couch. In his house. While you were meant to be looking after his kids."

"You make it sound worse than what it was."

Emmett stared at Bella, flabbergasted. "Bella," he said, "I don't think it could possibly get any worse." He hesitated, then said, "no actually, I expect it could have been a lot worse. Jesus, you didn't have your hands anywhere they shouldn't have been, did you?"

"Emmett!"

Lucy interrupted. "Did he fire you?" She wanted to know. "If I caught my nanny reading porn in my house, I'd fire her."

Coming from someone she really didn't know all that well, Bella wasn't sure how to take that comment.

"He didn't fire me." She said, after a moment. "He just asked me for a snack." She hesitated, then added, "then later on, he told me I was welcome to read anything from the book shelf in his office, which is one of the rooms in the house I wasn't even meant to go into. Then he showed me how to use the home entertainment system in the theatre downstairs and said if I was ever bored, that I was welcome to watch any of their films."

Lucy looked surprised. Emmett looked curious. "Was any of it porn?"

"No, Emmett," Bella said, rolling her eyes. "None of it was porn. They were normal blu-rays. But the books in his office - oh my god. He has a first edition Wordsworth." She groaned. "I can't even - like, I'm too awed to touch it. Twice I've been in there, just to admire it from afar." She hesitated, then added, "I even took a photo of it and put it on Instagram."

Emmett looked amused. "You were meant to get off on the porn, not on the classics."

Lucy, perhaps feeling a little left out, chimed in with, "I didn't get off on Fifty Shades. I thought it was terrible."

"It wasn't great," Bella agreed. "And that was the thing. I wasn't so much embarrassed at being caught reading porn as I was that it was that particular porn. I mean, can't he have caught me reading The Bride Stripped Bare or something by Anais Nin? Fifty Shades is just so badly written. I mean, I couldn't get over how excited the main character got about finding frozen peas in her freezer. I just couldn't shake the feeling that she had brain damage."

"What's The Bride Stripped Bare?" Lucy asked.

Bella blinked. "Um, it's a book. Classic female erotica, basically."

"Oh," Lucy said. "Well, you know what you should read? It's called Beautiful Bastard, I got it from Target. It's way better than Fifty Shades. The guy in it sounded sooo hot -"

Emmett was shaking his head, laughing. "I still can't believe you even brought that book into his house," he said to Bella, cutting his girlfriend off.

"Hey," Bella said defensively. "I don't own the book. I found it in one of the shelves in their lounge room. Turns out it's Tanya's, Edward told me she bought it because her sisters and all of her friends were reading it."

"Oh my gosh," Lucy said then, clearly trying to get into the spirit of things, "do you think they're into bondage? Did you imagine them acting out the scenes together?"

Emmett looked surprised. Bella frowned at the sudden influx of mental images. "No, but I am now," she said. "Um. So, thanks for that. It's awkward enough trying to look him in the face at the moment, now every time I do I'm going to be picturing him tying Tanya up to the bed posts and whipping her with his belt or something."

"Yeah, that's not an image of my boss that I want in my mind," Emmett agreed. Neither of them noticed Lucy settling back into her seat, looking irritated.

.

.

.

Since starting the job, Bella's life had become all about routines. Her life revolved around nap times and snack times and picking Alice up from school and dropping her off at activities, memorising schedules and then expecting them all to change at the last minute.

Tanya never came home on time. For someone who seemed so uncomfortable having strangers in her home she sure didn't seem to mind keeping Bella there until seven or eight o'clock on some nights before clattering through the door and dismissing Bella with her usual aloofness and an irritating inability to acknowledge the inconvenience she may have caused. But Bella couldn't complain, because it wasn't like she had anything pressing to get to. She'd learnt quickly not to make plans after six o'clock on the evenings that she worked, because she was very rarely able to keep them. And besides, the later she worked, the more she was paid. Her bookshelf and her shoe rack were benefiting greatly at the moment.

Though sometimes she did feel a little bit guilty about taking Edward and Tanya's money, when most of the time the job was a piece of cake. Elizabeth barely ever gave her trouble. And while Alice's changing attitudes kept her on her toes they certainly weren't anything she couldn't manage. She'd been particularly painful for a while, when Tanya had gotten her way and the ballet lessons had begun, and for some reason Alice had decided to take her anger at this out on Bella. But she'd calmed down lately and the hostility coming from her seemd to have diminished considerably. In fact, the last few times Bella had dropped her off outside the dance centre down on 184th Street she'd even looked somewhat happy - well, as happy as Bella had ever seen her, at least.

She felt especially guilty on the evenings Edward arrived home before Tanya did, when he asked her to stick around to help him feed the girls and put Elizabeth to bed. On those evenings her job barely felt like a job - it was hanging around the kitchen chatting with Edward about Europe and architecture, wine-making courses and Mad Men, first cars and first jobs and first pets, cars and books and music, Bella's early morning ice cream cravings and Edward's love of jalapenos. Some evenings the four of them - Bella, Edward, Alice and Elizabeth - sprawled out on the couches in the family room and watched tv, half of Bella feeling guilty about getting paid to eat cheez-its and berate the judges on The Voice, the other half feeling far too comfortable to make more than a half hearted effort to get up and leave.

She usually legged it pretty quickly when Tanya arrived, though.

Bella's friend Rebecca came to the conclusion that Tanya's hostility towards Bella stemmed from jealousy. "You spend more time with her kids and her husband than she does. As if she wouldn't resent you for that."

This irked Bella. "Well she's the one who works such long hours. That's her choice."

"Put yourself in her shoes. She wants a career. She wants a family. She comes home later than she'd probably like, and finds you doing the things she thinks she should be doing. Cooking for her husband, reading her daughter a bed time story. Hanging out with her husband and hearing about his day." Rebecca carefully selected a olive from the bowl in front of them and popped it in her mouth. She chewed, spit the pit out neatly into her napkin, then said to Bella very matter of factly, "she's likely jealous."

Bella scoffed, instantly dismissing the idea. "Impossible," she said. "Anyway, I don't think she's capable of jealousy. Or any emotions at all, actually."

Rebecca raised an eyebrow. "Not everyone wears their feelings on their sleeves the same way you do, Bella."

Bella poked at the bowl of olives, but didn't take one. She wished they'd ordered nachos instead. "You make a point," she conceded. "But she honestly has no reason to be jealous of me. I have nothing she wants. I'm not even on her radar, you know?"

"You have no idea what her insecurities are," Rebecca said knowledgeably.

Bella propped her chin up with her fist. "You're so sensible," she told Rebecca admiringly. "Sometimes when you talk, it's like a conversation with a grown up."

Rebecca wrinkled her forehead, looking like she wasn't sure whether to be confused or amused. She seemed to settle on the latter. "That's because we are grown ups, Bella."

Bella shrugged. "If you say so."

Emmett, who'd been texting, popped his head up then. "Bella's never going to grow up. She's going to be like Peter Pan."

"And who are you then?" Bella teased. "Tinkerbell? Finally admitting you're a fairy, huh?"

Emmett punched Bella's shoulder, which Bella returned with interest, and missed the pointed look Rebecca exchanged with her sister Rachel.

"She's just sore," Emmett told Rebecca and Rachel, wrapping Bella into a headlock. "I finally got her to admit she was wrong about something tonight. About _someone_, actually."

"Gasp!" Rachel said, overly dramatic, leaning back in her seat and feigning a look of shock. "Do tell!"

Bella wrestled her way out of the headlock, and shot Emmett a filthy look. "I'm not admitting I was wrong," she said, "because I don't think I was. I just admitted that perhaps I pre-judged someone before I got to know them properly -"

"So essentially, you were wrong."

Bella glared at Emmett. "No," she said, adamant. "I wasn't wrong! I was right about a lot of things - like, he really is quite cranky, he's undoubtedly got a real temper on him, even if he doesn't take it out on his wife and kids like I initially thought -"

"Hang on," Rebecca interrupted, holding up her hand, "who are we talking about now?"

"My other boss, Edward," Bella said.

"Who she was completely wrong about," Emmett pitched in.

Bella huffed impatiently. "Okay, for the last time, I wasn't wrong. He might be being Mr Nice Guy now, but the fact is that at first he _was_ an asshole to me -"

"Why?" Rebecca asked.

"I'm still not sure," Bella said. "Anyways -"

Rebecca interrupted again. "Wait, have you asked him?"

Bella blinked. "Um, no."

"Why not?"

"Well, it hasn't come up."

Rebecca cocked her head. "It hasn't come up, or you don't want to bring it up?"

"Ah, astute," Emmett said, leaning back in his seat and eyeing Bella. "You make a good point there, Rachel -"

"Rebecca," both girls corrected.

"Dammit," Emmett said. "Why am I still struggling with this?"

"Because you're an idiot," Bella said.

"And you're judgemental," Emmett returned.

Bella leant back in her own seat and pouted. "I'm not judgemental. Am I?"

"Help me out here, girls," Emmett beseeched Bella's two friends.

Rachel leant forward across the table and patted Bella's arm consolingly. "It's okay," she said. "We don't mean it in a bad way. But you can be a little judgemental."

"How can you _not_ mean that in a bad way? That's like saying you're conceited, but not in a bad way. Being judgemental is not a good thing. And I'm not judgemental. I just have opinions about people, and that's not a bad thing, especially because I'm usually right."

"Why can't you just admit you were wrong about Edward?"

"Because I wasn't!" Bella snapped, genuinely irritated now. "So he's treating me like a human being now. Acting like we're friends. But that doesn't mean he wasn't a complete jerk to me at first, and _don't_ say I was overreacting because I _wasn't, _and you weren't there so you don't know how shitty it felt to be treated like that_ -"_

_"_Hey." Emmett placed a hand on Bella's upper arm, calming her almost instantly. "Hey, it's cool. I'm sorry, I was just messing around. I didn't mean to piss you off. You're right, I wasn't there, so I don't know. But the thing is, we won't know why until you ask him about it."

"Emmett's right," Rebecca said. "You should ask him about it. Why haven't you? It obviously bothers you."

Bella shrugged uncomfortably, a little embarrassed about blowing up like that. She was tired, that was her only excuse. "I don't know," she mumbled. "I mean... He's being all nice now. I don't want to ruin that."

Emmett was watching her carefully. "Is this that thing you do?" He said. "That wanting approval thing? Are you just trying to not make waves?"

Bella shrugged again, not wanting to admit that Emmett had pretty much hit the nail on the head then. Sometimes she felt as though Emmett knew her better than she knew herself.

"Can we change the subject?" She said after a moment. "I was at work for over twelve hours today. I don't really want to think about it when I'm not there."

Emmett headed off not long later, off to meet Lucy at another bar.

"Why doesn't she come here?" Bella asked, as Emmett got his coat and prepared to leave.

Emmett shrugged. "I invited her," he said. "I don't know. Maybe she's with friends or something. Anyway, I probably won't be back tonight so I'll see you tomorrow. Remember you promised you'd cook tomorrow night."

"I did. I won't forget. Have a good night."

Emmett tugged Bella's ponytail affectionately, then headed for the door.

Rachel watched him leave, then turned back to Bella with eyebrows raised. "So," she said, leaning in, a smirk on her lips, "how long has Emmett been in love with you?"

Bella blinked. "Huh?"

"Don't act dumb. It's so frigging obvious."

It didn't sound like Rachel was joking, but Bella was sure she had to be. "Um, are you delusional?"

"Are _you_?" Rachel returned. "He's completely in love with you."

Bella shook her head, as though she could shake some sense into the words she was hearing. "I can't even," was all she managed.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Help me out," she said to her sister.

Rebecca shrugged. "He is particularly attentive," she said. "I've always thought you guys had chemistry."

Bella pretended to gag. "Don't," she said. "You're freaking me out. Look, you're so wrong that we need a new word for wrong. You're the Mayor of Wrong Town. Just - wrong."

"I can't believe you can't see it," Rachel said, looking genuinely flabbergasted.

"I can't believe you think you _can_," Bella returned. "Look, Emmett is like my best friend, that is all."

"Yeah," Rachels aid slowly, "about that."

Bella frowned. "_What_ about that?" She said.

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Rachel has this theory," she said, picking at the olives again. "She thinks that guys and girls can't be just friends."

Bella blinked. "Um, huh?"

"I know," Rebecca sighed. "I've given up. You try and convince her."

"I don't need convincing," Rachel said. "I just don't think it ever works. One of them is always hoping it's something more. At the very least they're imagining what it would be like to have sex with each other. And once you've thought about it, you're only one step away from actually doing it."

"I completely disagree," Bella said. "I have never, nor will I ever, imagine having sex with Emmett. He is like my brother. He farts in front of me. Which also proves he's not in love with me. So - just no to everything you've said in the last three minutes. All of it. No."

"You're like a fifteen year old girl sometimes," Rebecca said to her sister. "Assuming that just because they're members of the opposite sex that there's an attraction. It's not always like that. Take Bella's boss."

"What about him?" Bella asked, a little surprised. "What's he got to do with this?"

"Well you said you guys were friendly. You hang out. But there's no way you'll ever hook up."

"Excellent example," Bella said. "He's my boss, he's married, he's ten years older than me, and we're in completely different social stratospheres."

Rachel tilted her head. "Yeah, and so? That doesn't mean he hasn't thought about you naked. That he hasn't thought about fucking you. He's a guy. That's what they do."

"Rach," Rebecca groaned. "Seriously, you're so inappropriate. That's Bella's boss you're talking about."

"Whatever," Rachel said with exasperation. "The point is, I bet you a million dollars he's thought about it."

"Even if he has," Rebecca argued, "it doesn't mean there's any chance anything would happen. Which makes this entire conversation redundant."

"Yeah, can we move on?" Bella said. "This whole conversation is making me really uncomfortable."

.

.

.

It was a Friday evening and Tanya was late - again. Edward had come home just after six thirty, and had sighed in a tired and reisgned sort of way when he saw that it was Bella standing in his kitchen and preparing dinner, and not his wife. Bella had seen a look of frustration cross his features, before he'd schooled them into a smile for Elizabeth, who was seated in her high chair by the bench, coloring quietly where Bella could keep an eye on her. As he'd taken to doing lately, he'd asked Bella to stick around while he headed upstairs to see Alice. When he came back downstairs, half an hour later, he'd changed out of his suit and also shed his bad mood.

"I'm exhausted," he told Bella, leaning heavily against the bench. He eyed the stir fry she was preparing. "I hate to ask you this, and I understand if it's a huge imposition and you can't - but is there any chance you can stick around until that's finished?"

"You mean the stir fry?"

"Yeah. It just - really, it looks amazing. But I'll likely burn it. And then it will be pizza again."

"Uh-oh!" Elizabeth piped up. "Not pizza again, Daddy!"

Edward smiled wryly, then smiled at Bella apologetically. "Any chance? For the sake of the children?"

"How am I mean to say no to that?"

Edward smirked. "That's the idea."

"Emotional blackmail?"

"Works every time."

Bella rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. But you can help chop carrots."

"That I can do."

They chopped quietly for a few moments, the only noise in the kitchen was the sound of Elizabeth's happy hums and the the regular clacking of their knives against the chopping boards. After a bit Bella asked Edward how his day had been at work, and as he began to explain the new contract his company was trying to attain Bella was reminded of what Rebecca had said the other night when they'd gone out for drinks. She glanced subtly around her, at the meat simmering in it's sauce on the stove, at Elizabeth in her high chair, happily drumming her feet and colouring away. At Edward, lounging against the bench, gesturing with his knife in one hand as he tried to explain the concept of the buildings his team wanted to design. If anyone looked through the kitchen window right now, or saw a snapshot of this scene, would they assume that Bella belonger here? That this was her kitchen and Elizabeth was her daughter and she was Edward's wife?

The she thought of what Rachel had said. That even though he was her boss and he was married and everything else, that Edward was a guy, and he'd thought about her naked, that he'd thought about sleeping with her. Out of the corner of her eye Bella caught a glimpse of his arm as he raised it in the air, with the shirt sleeves rolled up to just past his elbows, the shape of his upper arm beneath the thin cotton, the sprinkling of hair on his forearm. He had big hands with long fingers, and as Bella looked at them she wondered whether he really had thought about touching her with them. She had a wild sort of curiousity then, to know exactly whether he'd thought about sleeping with her at all, and if he had, exactly what he'd imagined them doing. Was it something he'd thought about more than once?

Was he thinking about it now?

He met her eyes then, he was smiling as he explained something animatedly, gesturing with that same hand she'd just been watching. She looked away quickly, suddenly embarrassed, and in her haste nicked herself with her knife.

"Damn," she whispered, lifting her finger to inspect it. Blood was already oozing from the cut.

"Ouch," Edward said, and reached out to take her hand. He wiped the trickle of blood away with his finger. "Doesn't look too deep. I think you'll live." Then he lifted the finger to his lips and kissed it.

Bella wasn't sure who was more startled by the gesture. He dropped her hand as quickly as he had taken it, and took a step back. "Sorry," he said, and shot her an awkward sort of smile. "Habit."

"It's okay," she said quickly, holding her hand to her chest.

"Does Bella have an owie?" Elizabeth piped up. "I get owies, too. When Daddy kisses them it makes them all better."

"Magical healing powers," Edward confirmed, picking his knife up again and resuming his chopping. "Do you need a band-aid? There's plenty in the bathroom cabinet upstairs."

"No, it's all good," Bella said, inspecting her finger one more time before slipping it into her mouth. When she glanced up, Edward was watching her. This time they both looked away.


	7. Chapter 7

**The Help**

* * *

**7.**

"Where's Lucy?"

Emmett slung his jacket and wallet onto the kitchen table, swung the fridge door open and searched for something within. "Um," he said absently, "she's out with friends."

"It's Friday night, though," Bella said, pausing the program she'd been watching and twisting around on the sofa.

"And?"

"And," Bella said, clambering over the back of the sofa in a rather inelegant manner that had the corners of Emmett's mouths twitching into a reluctant smile, "you guys always spend Friday night together."

"Not always."

Bella joined him in by the fridge, reached past him to pull the beer she knew he was looking for from the vegetable crisper, where it rested upon a long forgotten wilting head of lettuce. "Here," she said, popping the cap off and handing it to him, then continued, "And, yes, pretty much always. For the last four weeks at least. I know, because I've been counting."

Emmett took a long swallow, eying Bella as he did so. "Bella," he said, after resting the beer on the bench top, "you have a sad, sad life if you really count the number of Friday nights that I spend with my girlfriend."

"Ooh," Bella said, swiping the beer and taking a mouthful herself, "so she's actually your girlfriend now? Last time I asked, you were all 'I'm not going to put a label on it' and 'I'm still a free agent, no woman will ever tie me down'."

Emmett snatched the beer back. "Pretty sure I never said that."

"Uh, pretty sure you did. You were totally insistent that you were this big Player, with a capital P. I'm glad you've realised this was just a delusion."

Emmett just grunted, then wandered over to the sofa and threw himself on to. Bella followed, shoving his legs out of the way so she could sit on her favorite side. Emmett retaliated by resting his feet on Bella's lap.

"Your feet stink."

Emmett lifted one to her face, and she screeched and knocked it away. "You stink," he said.

"So?" Bella said, wriggling down into the cushion and getting comfortable.

"So what?"

"So how come you aren't with Lucy?"

"I told you. She's with her friends. Pass me the remote, we are not watching this shit."

Bella lunged for the remote, quickly shoving it beneath her where he couldn't reach. "No," she said. "I love Catfish. It makes me feel so much better about myself. Cos even though I have been single for like, forever, at least I haven't fallen in love with some person on the internet that I've never even met, and who actually turns out to be a five hundred pound transgender woman with a grudge against society."

"You're fucking crazy sometimes, Bella."

"I know. You love me."

"Hmm." Emmett moved his legs from Bella's lap, stretching them out in front of him instead.

"I am thinking, though," Bella mused, "I really should put myself back out there. Do you know how long it's been since I got laid? And you should know, because the walls in this place are paper thin, so no doubt you heard it."

Emmett scratched the back of his neck. "Um."

"Yeah, I can't remember, either. Which means too long. Hey, if you're not going out with Lucy tonight do you want to go with the bar with me? You can be my wing man."

"Isn't that the sort of thing you should do with one of your girlfriends?"

Bella frowned. "No, because it's called a wing _man_, not a wing woman. Besides, you're my favorite person to drink with."

"You mean I'm the only one who puts up with you?"

"That, too."

.

The bar was practically empty, which was normally a good thing. Tonight, however, it was not.

"Where are all the eligible men?" Bella whined, as they placed their orders at the bar.

The Proust-reading bar girl, who'd shaved one side of her head since Bella had been there last, muttered, "they don't exist, you naive fool."

Bella waited until she and Emmett were settled at their favorite table and safely out of hearing range before saying, "well, someone's a bit bitter."

"You're looking at your future," Emmett said, then ducked as Bella threw a punch. She eventually settled for a headlock, which Emmett wriggled out of after a few moments.

"What's with you?" Bella asked, noticing the way he re-adjusted his collar and shifted a few inches away from her. "You're being weird. Weirder than normal."

"Huh? No I'm not."

"Yeah, you are. You were all cagey about Lucy. Did you guys have a fight or something?"

"I wasn't being cagey. And we didn't have a fight. She's just out with her friends."

"Will you meet her later?"

Emmett was beginning to look irritated. "I don't know. She's with her friends, so probably not."

"Why not?" Bella pushed.

"Jeez, Bella, what's with the Spanish Inquisition?"

"What's with you acting like you don't like her anymore?"

"What's with you thinking it's any of your business?"

Bella sat back in her seat, feeling almost like she'd been slapped. "Sor-_ree_," she said sarcastically. "Didn't realise I wasn't meant to care about my best friend's relationship."

Emmett flinched again. Then he sighed. "Sorry," he said.

Bella shrugged. "Hmm."

"You're not going to hold a grudge, are you?"

Bella shrugged again, non-committal. "Maybe."

Emmett groaned. "You're being extra annoying lately, you know? Okay, if you don't hold a grudge I'll watch Catfish with you when we get home."

Bella beamed at him. "You're gonna love it, I promise."

"Yeah, yeah."

The bar girl arrived with their drinks. Bella studiously avoided eye contact with her. She'd never been intimidated by a person in hospitality before. She breathed a sigh of relief when she left.

Emmett eyed Bella's vodka lime and soda before taking a mouthful of his cider. "What's with the fancy drink?" He asked, after swallowing. "And the ordering of deluxe fries instead of the regular fries?"

"I am cashed up," Bella said proudly. "Thanks to Tanya's overtime and Edward's apparent inability to look after his children without a woman there. So it's splurge time. I could save, yes. Put my money in a bank where it may or may not earn interest depending on the economy. But I would prefer to invest it in a new pair of jeans and perhaps even a hair cut."

"Ah, further wise decisions I see." Emmett nodded his head. "I can see exactly how you intend to retire with a pair jeans and a hair cut."

Bella rolled her eyes. "Whatever, _Dad_."

"Don't even," Emmett, who knew all about Bella's history with her father, said sternly. "Oh, and what's with the bitchy comment about Edward?"

Bella had to think back to what she'd said. "Oh," she said, then shrugged. "It wasn't bitchy. It's fact. He's one of those guys who is totally useless without a woman around."

"Are you serious?"

"Uh-huh."

Emmett frowned. "The man runs one of the most successful architectural firms in Seattle -"

"So, he's a good businessman." Bella shrugged again. "That says nothing about what he's like at home. Anyway, I'm not saying he's a bad father or anything like that. He's a great Dad. Just - like, I can imagine him being totally incompetent without a woman in his life. Like, I stay to make them all dinner nearly every night now. And he's always asking what he thinks they should all do after dinner, like he can't come up with ideas on his own or something, and then half the time he asks me to stick around, like he can't set up a game of Monopoly without help, and then -"

"Bella," Emmett interrupted, "have you ever considered that maybe he's just lonely?"

"Huh?"

"It sounds like his wife is some sort of workaholic. Maybe he just wants company in the evening."

"He has two daughters. That's plenty of company."

"Adult company. Grown up, civilized conversations and the like. And since his wife's never there it's just you - and, well you know how the saying goes. Beggars can't be choosers."

"Excuse me! I'll have you know that I am truly scintillating company! I should be paid for my company!"

"Um, I'm pretty sure that's what he's doing."

"Oh." She hesitated, then said, "I don't know whether to be flattered. Or worried. I mean - is this the first step to prostitution?"

"Bella!" Emmett complained. "That's my boss you're talking about! And yours, too!"

"I didn't mean with him and - hey, look, it's not like he's an unattractive guy or anything. And he's all confident and stuff, you know, like with the way he moves. He's probably really good in bed. I could certainly do worse for clients."

Emmett's face was so screwed up, it looked like he'd just sucked on a lemon. "Yeah, but _he_ could probably do better. the guy's a catch."

"Careful," Bella teased, "your gay is showing."

Emmett rolled his eyes, then knocked back the rest of his beer. "Alright, are we sticking around for another drink? Because I'm going to need one if we keep talking about your flourishing career as a prostitute."

Proust girl was back to collect Emmett's empty glass. She clearly heard his last comment, because she shot Bella the kind of look that said that maybe she'd misjudged them after all.

Bella sighed, swallowing the remains of her drink. "Honest?" She said. "I kinda want to go home and watch the rest of the Catfish marathon. I mean, there's no point hanging around here, this place is dead."

Proust girl looked offended, and left without taking their glasses.

"Continuing to make friends, everywhere you go," Emmett said, as they got up to leave.

Later that night, after Emmett was in bed with Lucy (she'd shown up on their doorstep, heels in her hands, tipsy from the 21st birthday party she'd been to and had dragged Emmett away from the Catfish marathon) and Bella was tucked up in bed alone, she thought about what Emmett had said - about Edward being lonely. She didn't like the way that made her feel. Because it made him seem so human to her, and she didn't like that. Because it blurred the lines even more. And she was starting to think that it had been a lot easier when he was just her boss.

.

.

.

"I like your boots. Very cool."

Bella did a little spin on one heel, proudly displaying them in all their brown leathery goodness. "Nice, huh?" She said, grinning up at Edward. "They're new. I bought them this weekend. And the jeans, too."

"Ah. Busy weekend, then?"

"Uh-huh. I went on what could only be described as a shopping spree. I bought many, many things. Things I didn't even need, and some things I probably didn't even want. So now no one can accuse me of not doing my bit to stimulate the economy. I stimulated the hell out of it."

"I see." Edward propped himself up against the kitchen counter where Bella was pouring juice for Elizabeth. He'd only just come in from work, and was still wearing his suit, although he'd taken his tie off the moment he'd walked through the door and tossed it on one of the counters. "And this is the part where I'm going to show my age, but as your employer I feel it's my place - you are saving some of your paycheck, aren't you?"

Bella wrinkled her nose. "You sound like Emmett."

"Ah, Emmett. I knew I hired him for a reason. I like the way he thinks about money."

"Um, he's the world's biggest tight-ass."

Edward grinned. "Exactly," he said with a wink. "Anyway," he continued seriously, "you're not going to be working here for all that much longer. It's my responsibility to encourage you to save some of your hard earned cash."

Bella stopped mid-pour, looking up at Edward in alarm. "What?" she said. "What are you - Are you telling me - Have I done something wrong?"

Edward looked confused. "What?"

"You don't want me working for you for much longer?"

"No - that's not what I meant. I meant, you'll be going back to college next year. Won't you?"

"Oh. That." Bella blushed a little, realising how much of an idiot she'd sounded. "Um, yeah. I suppose I will."

Edward raised an eyebrow. "Unless you were thinking about deferring for another year? Because I know Elizabeth would love to have you stay on forever. Tanya and I would be thrilled, too." Privately, Bella thought Tanya was incapable of being 'thrilled' by anything, but appreciated the sentiment all the same. "To be honest," Edward continued, "I have no idea what we're going to do once you leave. You're the first nanny who's actually worked out."

"Well, you know I could probably stay on part time," Bella said. "And if Tanya ever went back to work part time -"

Edward cut her off with a bitter sounding laugh. "A snowball has more chance in hell than of that happening," he said, then turned away to the fridge. He grabbed a bottle of water, and when he turned back the cold look on his face was gone. "Really, I don't know what any of us will do without you," he continued. "I for one have grown so accustomed to seeing you here, it would be strange to come home and have you entertain me with stories about Elizabeth's stroller ghosts, or in here whipping up one of your culinary masterpieces."

Bella blinked. "You mean my mac and cheese?"

"Best mac and cheese I've ever had."

Bella grinned. "The secret is to use cream. But shhh, don't tell anyone."

Edward returned her grin. "I'll take the knowledge to my grave," and made a crossing motion over his heart. "So," he said, after a moment, "any chance of you sticking around to prepare another of your culinary delights for us tonight?"

Bella hesitated. She'd told Rebecca and Rachel that she'd stop past to see them at their favourite off-campus bar. But she remembered what Emmett had told her, that maybe Edward was lonely. Tanya had called just before lunch to let her know she was going to be attending a function, so not to expect to see her that evening. Bella thought about Edward, sitting downstairs in front of the television once Elizabeth had been put to bed and Alice was shut up in her room on the phone to her friends.

"Sure," she said, and grinned at him. He grinned back.

.

.

.

When Bella dropped Alice off at her dance class on Tuesday afternoon, she knew something was up when Alice practically leaped out of the car with a grin on her face. It was a far cry from the first few times Bella had dropped her off, when she'd very nearly had to be dragged from the car, kicking and screaming.

"I'll pick you up at five!" Bella called out the open window, to her rapidly retreating back. "I'll meet you here, okay?"

Alice not only acknowledged her, but waved goodbye. Which was sufficiently suspicious for Bella to hang around and wait until she'd seen Alice actually head into the dance centre, suddenly struck with the thought that Alice was skipping the ballet classes and going off to do god-knows-what instead. But Alice disappeared through the doors, not before stopping to chat with two girls she seemed to know, and Bella felt a little guilty for automatically thinking the worst.

"Don't tell my friends," Bella told Elizabeth, glancing at the rear vision mirror where she could see the little girl strapped into her car seat, "but I think they might have been onto something when they said I always think the worst of people."

Elizabeth blinked at her sleepily. Her afternoon nap had been ended short so they could pick up Alice from school.

"I know," Bella murmured, pulling back into traffic. "You're sleepy. How about when we get home we sit down and watch something nice and quiet on tv, and have a bit of a snack? Sound good?"

Elizabeth nodded, and slipped her thumb into her mouth. Bella didn't have the heart to tell her to pull it out, even though Tanya had insisted that Bella try and break her of the habit.

Bella swung around to check her blindspot, and when she did she caught a glimpse of Alice's dance bag on the back seat beside Elizabeth's car seat. Swearing very quietly to herself, Bella immediately swung the car back around.

"How on earth," she wondered aloud, trying to navigate the after school madness traffic, "did Alice forget that?" She'd taken a bag with her when she'd gotten out of the car - she must have accidentally taken her school bag with her instead.

She had to double park, and frantically hoped that she wouldn't get towed whilst she raced the bag up to Alice. She brought Elizabeth with her instead of leaving her in the car, imagining it would be considerably more difficult explaining to Tanya that not only had her car been towed, but her daughter too.

"Alice Cullen? Ballet?" Bella breathlessly asked the receptionist, once they were inside.

"Ballet is the second classroom down the hall, on the left - but I don't think -"

Bella didn't hear the rest. She headed down the hall, Elizabeth on her hip, Alice's bag in the other. Second classroom down, Bella could see through the wide glass windows the rows of barres, and girls clustered around them in groups. Most were already dressed in uniform black leotards and pink tights, and Bella searched for Alice amongst them. She couldn't see her, but the dance teacher caught her eye and wandered over to the door.

"Looking for someone?" She asked kindly.

"Yes - thank you. Alice Cullen. She left her bag in the car, I figured she'd need it."

The teacher blinked. "Alice Cullen?"

"Uh-huh." Bella hesitated, then said, "about yay high. Spiky kinda black hair. Um, rather non-regulation eye makeup..."

"Oh yes, I know who she is. But she's not in this class anymore. She's in classroom 3, just across the hall."

"Great. Thanks."

But across the hall was most definitely not ballet. Bella spied Alice straight away, standing with a group of other kids who looked a little older than her. No wonder she didn't need her dance bag, Bella thought to herself, watching as the hip-hop class began. Obviously Alice had stashed the sweatpants and singlet she was now wearing into her school bag.

Bella knew for a fact that Tanya and Edward thought she was doing ballet. Unless they'd agreed to let her swap to hip-hop at some point between this morning and now, which Bella doubted, judging by the comfortable, familiar way Alice performed the steps. Clearly Alice had been taking this class for a while.

"You little sneak." Bella murmured to herself, not sure whether she should be admiring Alice's skills at deception.

She hesitated by the open doorway, unsure how to proceed. She didn't want to call Alice out in front of the entire class, she knew that definitely wasn't the way to gain Alice's trust. But at the same time, Alice had lied to her - blatantly and to her face - and Bella was not down with that. She was a lot of things, but she definitely wasn't a pushover. And besides that, wasn't it her duty to let Edward and Tanya know what Alice was really up to?

But she was watching Alice now, and the younger girl was looking happier than Bella had ever seen her.

She ended up leaving without confronting Alice - not because she'd made her mind up, but because of her precarious parking situation. Then she spent the afternoon pondering the predicament, wishing she had another nanny friend to get advice from. She knew that a few other families on the street had nannies, but so far Bella hadn't met any of them.

When she returned to pick Alice up from her class, she decided the best thing to do was give Alice the chance to be honest, before she took any further action. So when the younger girl slid into the front seat of the car, red cheeked and windswept looking, Bella asked, "how was ballet?"

"It was okay," Alice replied. She turned around to give her sister a gentle poke in the leg, but didn't seem inclined to expand further.

So Bella asked, "did you learn anything interesting? Any new steps?"

"Not really," Alice said evasively, then added a little too quickly, "we just sorta went over stuff we already know."

Bella spied an opening to pull out into the traffic and took it. Alice could be sneaky - that was fine. Because she could be twice as sneaky as Alice. She waited a few moments before continuing. "Oh," she said. "Well, you must be getting pretty good. You've been taking these ballet classes for a while now."

Alice just shrugged. "I guess," she mumbled, then leaned forward to turn the stereo on.

Bella didn't say anything else until they'd pulled up into the driveway and Alice was unbuckling her seat belt. She leaned into the back seat and emerged with the bag. "Here," she said. "You left this behind today."

Alice blinked at it, then blinked at her, then just said, "oh yeah."

Bella wanted to give her the opportunity to tell the truth, but so far Alice seemed adamant in hiding it. "You didn't need your dance shoes or anything in class today?" She asked.

"I borrowed someone else's," Alice said quickly, yanking the door handle.

"Really? Cos when I went upstairs to bring it to you, it seemed like you just didn't need them at all. You know, since you're not actually taking ballet classes."

Alice at least had the audacity to blush, to look ashamed at being caught in her lie. "Oh," she said quietly.

"What's the deal?" Bella asked.

A scowl crossed Alice's face, and now she just looked pissed off. "I hated ballet, okay?" She snapped. "I didn't want to do it, but Tanya made such a big deal about it, and Dad went along with her probably just to shut her up, even though I told him how much I didn't want to do it. So whatever. I did a few classes, then I found out they had a hip-hop class on at the same time. So I swapped." She turned accusing eyes in Bella's direction. "You've probably already told Tanya already, haven't you? Like I care."

"For your information, I haven't told anyone," Bella said calmly. "I wanted to give you a chance to tell me what was going on first."

"Whatever. You're still going to tell her."

"Did I say that?"

"Oh, as if you're not going to," Alice snapped. "You're a total suck up when it comes to Tanya. You'd do anything to get on her good side, like she even has one."

Bella was stung by this. "That's not true," she said, before biting her lip. She wasn't going to rise to Alice's bait. "Look," she continued after a second, "I'm not going to tell Tanya. I'm not even going to tell your Dad. I'm not going to tell anyone."

Alice stared at her sceptically. "Really?"

"Uh-huh. But here's the thing," Bella said, "I'm pretty pissed that you lied to me. I know you think I'm all evil and stuff - even though I have no idea why. I certainly don't think I've done anything to earn that opinion. I'm not trying to be your Mom. I'm not even trying to be your Nanny. I wasn't hired to look after you, so I don't get the hatred." Alice's face twitched a little at this, but she said nothing, so Bella carried on. "I'm not trying to make your life miserable. And I'm not trying to be your BFF. I'm just trying to do my job, and do it well, and to be honest it would be a heck of a lot easier if you dropped the whole attitude thing."

"So, what?" Alice said scornfully. "Is this like a bribe or something? You won't tell anyone about dancing if I'm nice to you?"

"No," Bella said, exasperated. "I was just trying to -" she sighed and half-groaned, half-laughed. Of course Alice wasn't going to make this easy. "Alice," she said, "I'm not going to tell anyone because I'm going to give you the option to tell them yourself. And before you think you can just keep lying about it, remember that they're going to find out eventually. Not because I dobbed you in. But because they're going to ring the school or the school's going to ring them, about renewing your fees or something, or your Dad's going to come along as a surprise to watch one of your classes, or they're going to show up at your end of year recital. And think about how that's going to go down. When they find out that not only have you been not going, but that you've been lying to their faces. And I know for sure that they're going to be much more angry about the lying thing. So I'm suggesting that you tell them yourself, before they find out otherwise."

Alice was sullen, silent.

"Look," Bella said, a last ditch effort, "why don't you just tell them how much you love the hip-hop classes? I mean, I saw you there today and it was obvious how much fun you were having. And you're good at it, too. What makes you think they wouldn't be happy for you? Do you really think they'd force you to go back to ballet?"

Alice's face turned bright red, and the words seemed to rush out of her. "They would - she would. Tanya will make a huge scene about it and tell Dad I have to do it. And, like, one of us has got to give in and she never will because she just doesn't care. She doesn't give a shit!" Alice curled her fists at her side. "But I don't want Dad having to be the one in the middle. So I'll give in, cos I care more about Dad being happy. All she cares about is getting her way. And making sure everybody thinks her life is perfect."

Bella had known that Alice held animosity towards her step mother, but she hadn't realised the extent of it. "Alice..." She began, but wasn't sure how to continue. Was it her place to get involved in this? Tanya certainly wouldn't think so, that much was obvious. But Edward probably would. And also, she felt like she needed to. She wanted to help, even if she didn't know how, but surely anything was better than the way they were dealing with it - or not dealing with it at all - like they were right now.

"Like, she literally does not give a shit about me at all," Alice continued, sounding more tired now than angry. Tired and resigned. "She doesn't even - I mean, it's like you said. You're not even my nanny. She hired you to look after Elizabeth, like I don't even exist at all. She wants me to be some perfect clone daughter, like all her friends' stupid daughters, and cos I won't do that then she just wants me to not exist."

It was the resignation in the younger girl's voice that ate at Bella the most. "Do you want me to talk to your Dad with you?" She asked.

"About what?" Alice asked. "About the dance classes? Or about the fact that his wife wishes I didn't exist?"

"About all of it," Bella said. "If you want me to."

Alice hesitated, and her face darkened. For one moment Bella expected more vitriol to spill from the girl's mouth, for her offer to be angrily rejected. But then Alice dropped her head, and shrugged. "Maybe," she said.

"Okay," Bella said carefully. "Well, if you decide you do, you just let me know, okay?"

"Okay." Alice frowned, then said haltingly, "I'll - I'll tell him about the dance classes tonight. I can tell him that on my own. But the other stuff... I don't want to stress him out." She glanced up at Bella, and her gaze was pleading. "I don't want to ruin anything for him. I don't want to be the reason he and Tanya fight, I don't want to be the reason he's upset or he's mad. And if they split up and he's heart broken again, like was after my Mom - I mean, I remember that! I don't remember everything about when she died, but I do remember how sad he was and I know he was so lonely, and I don't want him to be lonely again because of me!"

"Alice -"

"No!" Alice cut her off. The pleading look was gone, and her usual mask of annoyance was back in place. "No," she repeated coldly. "It's _my_ Dad. You don't know what it's like, you don't anything about him or us. It's none of your business. I said I'd tell him about the dance classes. That's it." She glared up at Bella. "And don't you dare tell him yourself."

Bella sighed, and watched as Alice disappeared into the house. The thing was, she'd told Alice that she could trust her. And the only way to keep that trust, to keep her word, was to stay silent.

.

.

.


	8. Chapter 8

**The Help**

* * *

**8.**

"It's going to be the party of the season," Bella said to Emmett on Monday morning, around a mouthful of cheerios. "The place to see and be seen," she continued as she reached for another handful. "I expect invitations are being sold on the black market."

Emmett looked skeptical. "Right," he said, raising the towel in his hands to scrub at his still wet hair. It was just after six in the morning and Bella and her breakfast of dry cheerios were interrupting Emmett's morning bathroom ritual.

"You're doubting me, I can see. But you'll be proved wrong. It'll be written up in the papers next week."

Emmett blinked at her from underneath the towel. "Bella. It's a third birthday party."

"Yeah, but it's _Tanya Denali's_ daughter's third birthday party. You should hear her go on about it - it's the only thing she's been talking about for the last three weeks. Last I heard she'd hired a circus - not just one performer. Not a couple of clowns and maybe a pony. I mean a whole. Freaking. Circus."

"That's madness. The kid's three - she's not going to appreciate it."

"Exactly," Bella said, nudging past him to get to the sink. "Hey, you're done in here, right?"

Emmett nudged her back. "No - I still need to shave."

"Okay, well we can share. You shave while I fix my hair. Anyways," Bella continued, ignoring Emmett's exasperated sigh, "it's not for Elizabeth."

"You just said it's her birthday party -"

"Yeah, but it's the same way she buys Elizabeth these designer outfits. Elizabeth doesn't care what she wears, she'd be perfectly happy in a burlap sack. Same way she's not going to care if there's three ring circus in her backyard on Saturday. Tanya just does it to impress her friends. That's who it's really for."

"You make her sound so shallow," Emmett said. He threw his towel on the floor, and reached past Bella for his shaving cream and razor.

"Calling it like I see it," Bella replied.

Emmett frowned, and paused in the middle of his lathering. "You really don't like her, do you? I guess that means you've given up on trying to get her to like you?"

"No," Bella said. "Some stupid, relentlessly optimistic part of me is always going to want her approval, even though after five months you'd think I'd have realised I'm never going to get it. But the rest of me knows that Elizabeth likes me, and Edward likes me - and sometimes Alice seems like she isn't praying for my untimely death - so three out of four ain't bad."

"So are you invited to this party extravaganza?" Emmett asked her.

"If asking me to work during it, then yeah," Bella replied. "I don't even mind giving up my Saturday for it, though. It sounds like it's going to be insane."

"Well, I guess I'll just wait to read about it in the papers."

Bella flicked her hair back over her shoulders and eyed herself in the mirror. "Do I look okay?" She asked.

"Since when have you cared what you look like before you go to work?"

"I always care what I look like," Bella protested. "God, why do you always act like I'm some hobo or something?"

"Calling it like I see it," Emmett mimicked.

"Whatever," Bella grumbled, heading for the door. "Oh, and by the way," she said, pausing by the doorway and shooting him an evil grin, "I used your razor to shave my legs this morning."

Emmett looked furious. As Bella let herself out the front door she heard him shouting after her, "yeah, well I'm going to use your face washer to wash my balls!"

.

Bella's phone rang just as she was pulling up out the front of Edward and Tanya's place. She answered it distractedly, yanking up the handbrake with a grunt. "Hello?"

The voice that answered her was as familiar to Bella's as her own. How many times had she relished the sound of it on the other side of the line? How often had it brought a smile to her face? For so many years, all it had brought her was joy.

But all it did now was make her stomach drop. Her heart started racing, and her hands trembled so hard she thought she was going to drop the phone.

"Bella," he said smoothly. "How's it all going in the big smoke, girl?"

She tried to swallow, but her throat was so dry, and when she finally managed to speak her voice came out as a croak. "Jake." She swallowed again. "How did you get this number?"

"Your Dad gave it to me. We were talking the other day, him and I. He was telling me all about what you've been doing, and I kept thinking about how long it had been since I saw you. And you know, I miss you girl."

Bella's stomach churned. Her Dad had given him her number? She didn't know whether to be furious or to cry. Why was her dad doing this? Why couldn't he understand?

"I don't - I don't want you to call me -" she tried to say, but he just cut her off.

"You know, your Dad was saying you sound a little confused about what you're doing over there in Seattle, and how he hopes you decide to move back home. He's not the only one. You belong here in Forks. With us."

She felt sick, actually sick to her stomach. One arm curled around her middle, trying to hold it in. "Don't," she whispered. "Jake, don't."

"It's true, though. It's not right, you being so far away. You know, I think about you all the time - about us, and how good we were together, and how things used to be -"

Bella's hand flexed automatically at this. How good they were together? How things used to be? Was he kidding? She tried to keep the tremble out of her voice, tried to tell herself he was miles and miles away and that she was safe here. She tried to maintain her anger and not succumb to the sickness and to the fear. But still her voice wavered, and she hated it. "Don't. Don't think about me."

"How can I not, Bells? You know you're always on my mind."

"Don't, Jake!"

"Hey - chill out, girl -"

"Don't tell me to chill out." She felt her heart thudding in her throat, pulsing beneath her skin with each frantic beat. "Don't think about me. Don't talk about me with my Dad. And don't call me again."

"Bells -"

She hung up, her finger slipping over the screen. Her hands were sweating, but she felt suddenly very cold. She hunched over, resting her hands on her knees, until the trembling subsided. But when she sat back up, her adrenalin was still pumping. The phone rang again - it was the same number. She hit cancel, then silenced it, and threw it onto the passenger seat, wanting it as far away from her as possible.

She tried to pull herself together before she head inside, but as she let herself in the front door with her set of keys her hands were still trembling.

"You okay?" Edward asked her as he met her in the foyer, briefcase in hand, a look of concern on his face once he saw hers.

"I'm fine," Bella said quickly, shooting him a quick smile and trying to smooth out her features. Her mouth and throat were still dry, so her voice came out as a croak. She swallowed a few times and tried again. "You're off early."

"Yeah, I'm meeting with the city council about a new contract." He reached out and tilted her chin up with his thumb and forefinger in a swift, comfortable move, and peered anxiously into her face. "You don't look fine. Are you not well? I can send Elizabeth to my mother's if you need a day off -"

"No, really, I'm fine." She stepped back and sent him an embarrassed smile. Her skin felt warm where he'd touched it. "If I was sick I wouldn't have come. Don't want Elizabeth getting sick before her party this weekend."

"Right, the party I'm taking out a second mortgage for," Edward said, with a wry smile. He moved towards the door, but stopped in the threshold to tell her, a hint of concern still lingering in his words, "if you need anything today, just give me a call. I'll have my phone on me all day."

As the day wore on, part of Bella wished she'd taken his offer of a day off. Elizabeth was tired and whiny, and when she picked her up from school Alice was full of attitude. Tanya called just before five to say she was working late and Bella would need to stay until Edward came home. Then only minutes later Edward called to say he was stuck in his meeting and wouldn't be back til late, and could she get the girls dinner? All Bella wanted to do was go home, pick up Emmett, head to the bar and get absolutely hammered. Anything to get that phone call and Jake's voice out of her head. Instead she had Alice, who was being twice as surly as usual, acting unpleasant to the point of rude. And she had Elizabeth, who didn't want to eat dinner, then didn't want to take her bath, and then definitely didn't want to go to bed. Bella was up and down the stairs no fewer than ten times, calming her crying and reading book after book until finally, just after nine o'clock when even Alice had turned in for the night, Elizabeth finally drifted off to sleep.

When she finally collapsed on the sofa in the family room she was drained, exhausted not only from the girls, but from the effort of trying to suppress everything she'd been feeling all day. But no matter how hard she'd tried to block it out, his words - his voice - had been running through a constant loop in her mind. And after everything it was like she was back in Forks again, seventeen again. She'd worked so hard to put Forks and Jake in her past. She'd tried so hard to forget; even telling herself that if she could forgive her dad she could forgive him, too. After how hard she had worked to put it behind her, with one phone call it was like it was all crumbling at her feet.

As the day had progressed, her shock and distress had naturally turned to anger. She didn't know what made her madder - him for having the gall to call and act like he'd never done anything wrong; or her dad for actually giving him her phone number. She'd begged and pleaded with him not to - something she should never have had to do in the first place! But her father had always turned a blind eye to everything that had happened between her Jake - literally a blind eye - blithely ignoring the bruises on Bella's arms, the black eye. His one and only comment had been that she was "extraordinarily clumsy"; told to the doctor in the ER who'd set Bella's broken hand. And even after that, even then he'd continued to act like everything that had happened had all been a misunderstanding, that Bella had been exaggerating.

And the worst part of all, was that Bella had no one that she could talk to about this. She hadn't maintained any of her friendships from Forks, she'd drifted apart from most of them when things had started to get bad with Jake. She had never told Rachel and Rebecca because she'd wanted a fresh start, a new friendship without any of the weight of her past. And although Emmett knew a certain amount about her past - about why she'd left Forks, about why her relationship with her father was so strained - he didn't know everything, because she hadn't been able to bring herself to tell him. Part of her was terrified that whoever she told would react the way her father had. That they'd try and tell her that she'd brought it on herself.

Or worse - like she'd once thought, like Jake'd had her convinced: that she'd deserved it.

And she just couldn't deal with that again. She didn't want or need anything to remind her of the person she'd been back then. She was stronger now, but she didn't think she'd ever be strong enough that she could think of it without pain.

Her exhaustion got the best of her, and at some point she must have drifted off to sleep, because when she opened her eyes again the clock above the mantlepiece read just after ten. The lights in the family room were all off, apart from a dim lamp on the table near her head, and someone had settled one of the throw blankets over her feet. She heard the sound of someone moving about the kitchen, the muffled noises of socks on tiles and the refrigerator being softly closed. Turning her head, she saw Edward's familiar shape move past the doorway, moving from the kitchen to the dining room with a bowl of something in his hands. She had all intentions of getting up - it was ridiculously late and she should be getting home - but the soft sounds of Edward's socked feet on the floorboards and the light hum of the refrigerator lulled her back to sleep only seconds later.

.

When she opened her eyes again it was because she was woken by a noise - the sound of high heels clacking across the tiled kitchen floor. Then Tanya's voice rang out. "I rang you and told you I was going to be late. So I don't understand the drama."

In her sleep muddled state, Bella thought for a moment that Tanya was addressing her. Then she heard the low rumble of Edward's voice.

"I'm not upset that you didn't call," he was saying, his voice muted compared to his wife's. "I'm upset because this is the fourth night in a row that you haven't been home to have dinner with the girls."

"Honestly Edward, I've just walked in the door. Do you have to start an argument before I've even had a chance to sit down?"

"I'm not trying to start - "

"Besides," Tanya considered, indignant, "you weren't home tonight, either. So don't play the martyr with me!"

Edward's voice was still low, but abruptly filled with anger. "I wasn't home because I had an incredibly fucking important meeting, Tanya. About winning a contract I need us to win, so I can pay for this bloody party this weekend. Where were you? And don't say you were at work because I know for a damn fact you weren't, I rang you to see if you would be home to have dinner with the girls and they told me you left at five." His voice became almost dangerously calm. "So do you want to tell me where you were, Tanya?"

Tanya's voice was almost shrill with indignation. "If you're accusing me of something, just go ahead and do it, Edward!"

"I'm not accusing you of anything, I just want to know where the hell you were that was so important you once again came home after the girls had gone to bed."

"Jesus. I was having drinks with some advertisers, alright? Part of my job is entertaining clients, you know that, so don't get all uptight. I'm just as entitled to a career and to success as you are -"

"When have I ever said that you're not?"

Edward was still keeping his voice muted, but Bella could still hear every word, and her cheeks burned, knowing she shouldn't be hearing any of this, and only imagining how Tanya would react if she knew she were listening.

"You're at me, day and night, about not being at home with the girls. You know that my job isn't nine to five, Edward, you knew that when you first met me -"

"You know what I knew?" Edward snapped. "I knew what you told me - which was that you always believed a family came first. I believed you when you told me when you had children that you wanted to stay at home and be with them, to raise them the way you wished your own mother had raised you."

"Jesus - so sue me for loving my job, and sue me for being good at it! You've been throwing this back in my face since the moment I said I wanted to return to work!"

"I don't want to argue about this with you now, Tanya. You've been drinking -"

"I had two drinks!"

"Keep your voice down, Tan. Bella's asleep on the couch."

Tanya's footsteps halted. "What on earth is she doing there? Why haven't you sent her home?"

"Because she's asleep, Tan. Besides, I'm a bit worried about her. She didn't seem herself this morning. She said she wasn't sick, but she seemed really out of sorts."

Tanya made no reply, but Bella could hear her heels clicking around the kitchen. Then she heard her voice call out, terse and chillingly polite, "did you call the caterers about this Saturday? You know I need to see that confirmed menu before Friday."

"Uh-huh. They said they'll email it to us tomorrow." Then, "I was thinking we should offer her the guest room tonight."

"Who?"

"Bella. Even if everything is okay, she's clearly exhausted. She's been here since seven am, and it's after midnight."

Tanya sounded supremely unconcerned. "And? She's getting paid for it, isn't she?"

Edward's voice had an edge of irritation. "That's not what it's about, Tan. I'm not sure she should be driving."

"Honestly, Edward." Tanya's voice was careless. "It's not our concern."

"Not our concern?"

"Yes, Edward! Don't you think we have enough to worry about at the moment, without worrying about the hired help?"

"Bella's our nanny, Tanya. Not a servant. And yes, she most definitely is our concern. I don't know how you can be so dismissive! She looks after your child, for crying out loud. You don't always have to be so cold, you know."

Tanya's voice was icy. "I'm too tired to argue with you about every damn thing tonight, Edward. You do what you want." Bella heard the sharp sound of her heels head out to the hallway and then begin to ascend the stairs.

A few moments later Bella heard softer footsteps approaching, and she sat up just as Edward appeared in the doorway. "Hey, you're awake," he said.

"I'm so sorry," Bella mumbled, embarrassed. "About falling asleep - I mean, I don't normally -"

"It's fine," Edward told her. "You'd locked everything up and the baby monitor was on - so everything was just fine. Don't stress."

"You should have woken me when you got in," Bella mumbled.

"You looked knackered," Edward told her. "You still do, in fact. I don't think it's a good idea that you drive home tonight. We've got a guest room, you can stay here."

"Oh - I couldn't impose -"

"You're not imposing," Edward told her firmly. Bella got the feeling he knew that she'd overheard his and Tanya's argument. "It would be irresponsible of me to let you drive home." Then he cracked a small smile. "And if you got into an accident, you could sue. And on top of the party this weekend, that's the last expense I need."

"I really - "

"I insist. Come on, I'll show you there."

Bella trailed behind Edward as he led her to the back of the house, and the guest wing that lay beyond it. Despite his insistence, she was still uncomfortable about staying, particularly when she knew Tanya wasn't a fan of the idea at all. She figured she was crossing all kinds of boundaries now, giving Tanya more ammunition to disapprove of her.

" - and the ensuite's just through here. Towels in the cupboard, soaps and shampoos and all that sort of stuff in the shower." Edward paused by the bed. "Do you need anything to sleep in? I can check and see if Alice has -"

"Oh, I'm right - really," Bella said. "I can sleep in my t-shirt, that's fine. Honestly, Edward, you've troubled yourself enough."

"It's no trouble at all, Bella. It's the least I can do. I'm so sorry about being so late tonight - I feel awful, I knew this morning you didn't seem a hundred percent, but I just couldn't get out of these meetings, and I didn't expect Tanya would be so late either -"

"It's fine - and I'm fine, I swear. I just -" she broke off just as her explanation about a distressing phone call was about to fall from her lips, hesitated, then changed her mind and just smiled gratefully at him. "I'm fine."

"Alright. Well I'll leave you to it. Let me know if you need anything. Otherwise I'll see you in the morning."

"Thanks. Night, Edward."

He hesitated for the briefest moment in the doorway. "Goodnight, Bella." Then he closed the door behind him.

As Bella undressed climbed into the huge, unfamiliar bed, she heard the sounds of Edward moving around downstairs, turning off lights and locking windows and doors. She turned off her lamp, waiting for the sound of Edward ascending the stairs to his bedroom and his wife. And maybe it was because the walls were too thick, or Edward's footstep too light, but she didn't hear him at all.

.

.

.

When Bella arrived at Elizabeth's party on Saturday morning she was expecting to see the circus tent set up in the backyard, so it wasn't that much of a surprise to her. What was a surprise was the hoards of caterers who seemed to have taken over the kitchen with their endless silver trays of hor d'oeuvres and the three crates of Moet stacked up against the kitchen bench. As were the two women who stood in the foyer, dressed as though they were going to a film premiere, eerily similar in appearance to Tanya.

Bella assumed these were the other two Denali sisters, and confirmed her suspicions when they both received her smile and greeting with narrowed-eyed stares and stiffly lifted chins. They were almost identical in appearance, although Bella knew from her google research that one of them was the older by three years; their similarity was less to do with genetics and more a result of the way they presented themselves. Sleek hair cut perfectly level; wrinkle-free complexions that surely were the result of botox, but without any of the tell-tale shininess to betray them; slightly pouted, glossed lips and eyes that appeared make up free from afar, but up close revealed eyelash extensions and artfully applied nude colours. The outfits they wore were likely worth more than Bella's college loans.

Bella felt suddenly embarrassingly under-dressed in her jeans. But she plastered a smile on her face and forcibly reminded herself that she was there to work - she was there to crawl around on the floor, wipe up cake spills and snot and change dirty diapers - she was hardly going to wear her best.

She found Tanya out on the back patio, barking orders about the layout of the tables and chairs at a nervous looking young man in a cummerbund and bow-tie. She greeted Bella with the same level of warmth, and led her into the family room, where Elizabeth was sitting propped up on a pile of cushions, wearing pink silk.

"I really don't want her getting dirty," Tanya instructed Bella. "There's a professional photographer coming later and I'd like her as pristine then as she is now."

"Right," Bella said slowly. "Um. With the circus out the back -"

"It shouldn't be an issue," Tanya replied. "She'll be watching it - not joining it." She finished this with a trill of exasperated laughter, as though Bella were an imbecile to believe the performers were there for anything other than appearances sake. "Anyway, that's why we asked you to work today, to keep an eye on things like this."

Bella smiled tightly. "It shouldn't be a problem at all," she lied.

Tanya's answering smile was just as tight. "Good."

"Um, I got Elizabeth a little gift," Bella said, pulling the small package out of her handbag. "It's not much, but-"

"The gift table is in the formal living room," Tanya said, not even glancing at the package. "You can leave it there. Elizabeth will be opening her gifts just after the cake is presented, once the photographer has arrived of course."

"Of course," Bella repeated.

Tanya glanced at Bella sharply, as though suspecting Bella were mocking her. Then her gaze moved over Bella's shoulder, and her smile became even frostier. "Alice," she said, her voice sugary and in total contrast to the expression on her face. "I thought we agreed you were wearing the dress I bought you -"

"It doesn't fit."

Bella turned around as Alice entered the room, dressed in tight purple jeans and converse, her usual scowl on her face. She was trailed by two girls who appeared to be her age or a little younger. They were impeccably dressed in pastel coloured dresses, each adorned with sashes that tied into large bows on the back. Bella had a sneaking suspicion, judging from their outfits, their physical likeness and the oddly-confident way they carried themselves, that these were the Denali cousins Alice spoke so derisively of.

"When you tried it on last week it fit you just fine."

"Well I must have put on weight or something because it doesn't fit."

"Are you sure about that? Because I'm not entirely sure your outfit now is appropriate for this event. Your cousins look lovely and you don't want to look out of place next to them in the photos -" Tanya dropped the sugary voice and her face took on the hints of a scowl as she said, "don't groan young lady, you were told about the photographer -"

"I don't want to wear that dress," Alice said, sounding petulant. "I told you last week that I didn't want to wear that dress." Alice shot a side-long glance at the two girls, who had moved over to the cushion pile where Elizabeth was sitting, and were now fussing over her dress. "I don't care what Charlotte and Catherine are wearing; they're Charlotte and Catherine, not me -"

"Alice!" Tanya hissed, also glancing at the two girls, her cheeks reddening. "That sort of rudeness is completely uncalled for!"

"I'm not being rude, I'm just saying that I'm not them -"

Tanya's voice rose over hers, artificially pleasant again. "Now, Alice, I don't think I'm asking too much when I requested you present yourself appropriately today. This is a family event -"

Alice muttered something that Bella didn't quite pick up, but clearly Tanya did, because her shoulders stiffened. "We are _all_ a family," she said, through clenched teeth. "And considering how lenient your father and I have been on you about your little dance class situation, I am surprised at your attitude towards this one simple request we're making of you, we certainly don't want to have to re-consider our decision to allow you to continue with your little hip-hop lessons -"

Alice's face coloured. "Fine!" She exclaimed, "I'll wear the stupid dress, alright!"

"Thank you, Alice."

Alice stormed out of the room. Tanya glanced back at Bella, her features twisted with anger, and Bella made a point of busying herself with re-arranging the crinoline under Elizabeth's skirt, trying to give the impression she hadn't heard a thing.

"Girls," Tanya adressed Alice's cousins, "You'll have to forgive Alice today, she's feeling a little under the weather." The lie rolled off her tongue so smoothly that Bella could only assume she used it a lot.

The taller of the two girls smiled up at her aunt. "We don't mind, Auntie Tanya," she said sweetly. "We think it's going to be an amazing day, no matter what."

Tanya's face relaxed just slightly, but it stiffened again the moment she turned back to Bella.

"The other children should be arriving shortly," Tanya said, her voice clipped. "There are only a few, and most of them will be old enough to take care of themselves, however I do ask that you ensure they all remain occupied with the more child-friendly activities."

_In other words_, Bella thought to herself as Tanya strode out of the room,_ keep the kids out of the real party_.

"I'm Bella," Bella said to the two girls, who Tanya hadn't bothered introducing her to. "I'm Elizabeth's nanny -"

"We know," the taller girl said. She got to her feet, and so did her sister, and the two of them tugged Elizabeth up by her hands. "Come on Elizabeth. Let's go and count how many presents you have already."

And they headed out of the room, leaving Bella to trail behind, with the unnerving feeling that she'd been slighted by a thirteen year old.

.

"Bella! It's so lovely to see you again!"

It took Bella a moment to place the older woman who waylaid her as she was heading inside to grab some more wet-wipes (her only shield in the constant battle to keep Elizabeth looking pristine). She was the first adult who'd actually spoken to her; who'd actually looked her in the face and acknowledged her. The other parents at the party - of who they were very few, confirming Bella's suspicions that the party was for the adults, not the children - had left their children with Bella with evident relief, making bee-lines toward the patio and the bar without a backward glance. There they now stood in small knots, sipping champagne and talking about each other.

The woman's face and voice were familiar, and Bella was surprised when recognition struck her. Surprised mainly that the woman remembered her at all.

"Oh - Mrs Cullen. How are you?"

"I'm wonderful!How are you, run off your feet, I suspect?"

"Um - well, not all the children are as well behaved as Elizabeth, that's for sure. Mind you, she's one in a million, so..."

"She certainly is - and I say that, of course, completely without bias. Oh, Bella sweetheart, this is my husband, Carlisle." She indicated the gentleman who sidled up beside her, having just removed his coat, and Bella did her best to hide her surprise. He didn't look a day over forty, with a head full of platinum blond hair and only the finest of lines around his bright blue eyes. This was Edward's Dad? He looked young enough to be his brother.

Bella politely accepted the hand he offered. "It's nice to meet you, Mr Cullen."

"And you, Bella. I've heard so much about you."

"Oh! Um..."

"All good, of course," he said with a smile that could only be described as flirty, squeezing her hand before letting it go. "But I have to say neither Esme or Edward mentioned just how pretty you are."

Esme rolled her eyes at her husband's antics. "Now, Carlisle," she said with good nature and a teasing smile, "don't even think about trading me in for a younger model. I have far too much on you!"

"Blackmail," Carlisle told Bella with a wink. "It's the secret ingredient to any good marriage."

Bella grinned. "I'll keep that in mind."

"What's all this?" Tanya said with a trill of laughter, appearing at her father-in-law's elbow, a glass of champagne in one hand. "What's the secret to a good marriage? If there's any couple I would take marriage advice from, it's without a doubt you two." She bent down to kiss first Carlisle's cheek. "How are you, Carlisle? You're looking as devilishly handsome as usual." She let out another little trill. "Edward should be careful, one of these days I'm going to snap you up for myself."

"It's good to see you, Tanya dear," Esme said, accepting the kiss Tanya brushed across her cheek - was it Bella's imagination or did her smile seem just slightly forced? "Carlisle and I were just offering the lovely Bella some handy tips about blackmail,"

"Oh. Isabella." Tanya turned to glance at her, as though she hadn't realised she were there. The smile slid from her face. "The Hunter's have just arrived with their two girls - perhaps you should offer to assist them?" The words, although veiled as a suggestion, were undoubtedly an order.

"Of course -"

Tanya followed Bella two steps towards the foyer, but not so far that her words wouldn't have carried back to Edward's parents, and said coldly, "And please don't forget that you're here as an employee, Isabella, not as a guest."

Feeling very much like she'd been scolded - and mortified about it happening in front of two people who'd been being so kind to her - Bella scurried off into the foyer.

.

It was a third birthday party unlike Bella had ever seen before. Instead of sugary drinks and sticky sweets there were flutes of champagne and platters of prosciutto wrapped scallops. The music piped over the speakers was classical jazz instead of tunes by the Wiggles. And the only games the guests played were definitely for those over 18, with gossip about who'd had the most plastic surgery and who had slept with who being passed around like a warped game of pass-the-parcel.

Everybody was so incredibly good looking and well dressed. Although Bella had no idea who any of them were - seeing as none of them had actually been introduced to her - she was pretty sure that mingling amongst the guests on that patio were some of Seattle's wealthiest and most influential. And drifting from group to group, with a polished smile and genteel manners Bella had only suspected her of possessing, was Tanya, clearly in her element. She greeted her guests with smiles, the women with a brush of her cheek against theirs and a kiss that hovered just over their skin, favouring the men with affectionate squeezes to their arms and a warm, intimate laugh. She waved her husband over often, fitting against his side like she'd been carved a place there; occasionally calling for Bella to bring her Elizabeth; and there the three would stand, looking like a spread from House & Living magazine. Like the epitome of the perfect family.

And Bella could hardly wait to get home to tell Emmett all about it, because as impressive as it all was, ultimately it was all a facade, and at the centre of it was Tanya. While she obviously cared about her daughter, it was glaringly obvious - to Bella at least - that the only people here Tanya was trying to impress were her guests, and none more so than her two older sisters. It was classic sibling rivalry, just on a scale Bella had never seen before.

The three Denalia sisters, when they stood together, were equal parts striking and intimidating. They drew the eye of every guest at the party, woman or man, and were the topic of many a conversation that Bella overheard. Most of the women spoke of them with thinly veiled envy, of their looks and their husbands and their homes and their cars, their material possessions clearly all that they were interested in. And the men more often than not expressed a sort of joking disappointment - that Bella didn't believe was all that joking - that they hadn't snapped one of the sisters up for themselves.

Both Irina and Kate had been accompanied by their husbands, but like their wives, Bella could barely tell them apart. Both were considerably older than the sisters, in varying stages of graying around the temples, and spoke very quietly and very seriously, even to the children. And because they all treated each other with a sort of brusque formality Bella wasn't entirely sure which husband belonged to who.

Edward stood amongst a knot of similarly indistinguishable men. Bella hadn't really had a chance to say hello to him yet, she'd been busy with trying to keep Elizabeth spotless and trying to manage the handful of other youngsters she'd been charged with the care of. He'd caught her eye across the crowd at one point and had sent her a small wave, but she'd ducked her head because she'd been somewhat embarrassed at being caught staring. She rarely saw him out of his business suit, and then it was usually his gym gear. Both were, to her, a uniform of sorts, a reminder that he was a Dad and a husband and a businessman, and as nice as he was to her she was not on his level and never would be. But today he was wearing jeans and a striped rugby top with the sleeves pushed up and the buttons at the throat undone. He looked casual and relaxed, a beer in one hand and his hair messy and windswept.

And abruptly she was reminded of something Rebecca had told her, when they'd met for lunch on Bella's day off last week. When Rebecca had made a joke about him bragging to his friends about his "hot nanny", and Bella had reacted with a scoff of disbelief. Which had compelled Rebecca to tell her, "Just because he's a figure of authority to you, that doesn't make him any less of a person. He's the same as any other guy you'll meet - in that he eats and shits and drinks and probably doesn't get enough sleep and probably picks his nose when he thinks no one is looking, and probably wishes he was having more sex than he gets and probably has, at one point or another, thought about you naked. He's your boss, and he's a father and he's a husband. But none of those things stops him from also being a man."

It was the second time Rebecca had made a comment similar to this, and it made her feel just as weird the second time as it did the first. She knew he was a man - she wasn't blind, after all. She didn't know why thinking of him as just another guy instead of her boss - someone completely off-limits and not on her level - made her nervous.

As Bella watched, he caught her eye again and sent her an affable sort of grin. And for reasons she couldn't explain she felt her cheeks warm, and she turned away to hide her blush.

.


End file.
